MoClenaWan^ Jessie, A. 
 
 "The Iowa plan Por tKe Com- 
 binaV'von oP pubi'vc ^nd prvvate, 
 
 rehef. (Iowa Urnver€,ify mt>Yio^phs) 
 
 ■*^^"'»^ 
 
 -.t«^, 
 
 
 
 
 -^ 
 
 «% 
 
 
Cornell University Library 
 HV 75.I8M12 
 
 The Iowa plan for the combination of pub 
 
 3 1924 013 901 040 
 
 Heu) fork 
 Hate QfoUege of Agriculture 
 
 atlfaca, w. 5. 
 
 Hibratg 
 
i*,; v., STATE collegIiof agficulture"'-; 
 
 epR^ELL UNIVERSITV, ITilAC/^i'; N, Y. 
 
 'rmSTSERiB|No<17 ■ :, JtTNE.iaiS 
 
 OF IOWA 
 MONOGRAPHS 
 
 STUDIES M THE SOCIAL 
 
 THE 
 
 IOWA; ^^ l:OK THE C^MBINM'ION 
 OF PUBLIC ANpiPRIV^TEREL^ 
 
 ■; - ' BT 
 Bessie A. McClekahan, M.: A. , « 
 
 TuBi^saBp et T^j! irisiyEBsiTYj lowACiry ' 
 
 ISSUED MbNTHLT THBpUGHQUX TISB ^^^ ENTERED AT THE PO^T 
 OPFiqE AT IOWA CITY, IOWA, AS SECONDrCIiASS Mj^TER 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013901040 
 
UNIVERSITY OF IOWA MONOGRAPHS 
 
 STUDIES IN THE SOCIAL 
 SCIENCES 
 
 p. E. Hatnes, Ph. D., Editor 
 
 VOLUME V NUMBER 3 
 
 THE IOWA PLAN FOR THE COMBINATION 
 OF PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RELIEF 
 
 \'^^' I'f// 
 
 ' ,1 
 
 Bessie A. McClbnahan, M. A. 
 
 Published by the University, Iowa City 
 

 73^1 =3 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Editor's Introduction 5 
 
 I Introduction 7 
 
 II Provisions of the Law Governing Public Reuef 9 
 
 1. Outdoor ReUef . 9 
 
 2. Indoor Belief 13 
 
 III Administration in Polk County . ... 15 
 
 1. Outdoor Relief 16 
 
 2. Indoor Relief 27 
 
 IV Cost of Poor Relief in Iowa 29 
 
 V Variations of Administration 31 
 
 VI Difficulties op Administration .... 34 
 
 VII "The Iowa Plan" 38 
 
 1. Grinnell 38 
 
 2. Oskaloosa 44 
 
 3. Waterloo 44 
 
 4. Ottumwa 47 
 
 5. Burlington 53 
 
 6. Port Dodge 54 
 
 7. Cedar Rapids 54 
 
 8. The Significance of the Plan ... 55 
 
 VIII A State Program 58 
 
 1. Dangers of the Combination Plan . . 58 
 
 2. Advantages of the Combination Plan . . 59 
 
 3. Methods of Securing Voluntary Combination 
 
 Plan 61 
 
 4. County Welfare Boards 62 
 
 5. Recommendations for Improving Present 
 
 System 67 
 
 Notes and References 69 
 
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 
 
 The Iowa plan for the combination of public and private re- 
 lief has grown out of the conditions and needs of the state. 
 The fact that the situation in Iowa is typical of that of all the 
 states of the middle west makes its experience of especial inter- 
 est throughout that entire section. 
 
 Furthermore, the constant extension of the activity of gov- 
 ernment along social lines makes it evident that more and more 
 dependence will be placed upon public authorities in dealing 
 with social problems. Such a development means a fuller recog- 
 nition of the responsibility of government for social welfare. 
 Private charity can never meet the need completely and satis- 
 factorily. There must be a combination of public and private 
 activities to accomplish the best results. 
 
 - The Iowa plan is not entirely original with that state, but has 
 appeared occasionally in other places, although it has usually 
 been temporary in character and dependent upon some com- 
 bination of circumstances and of persons. In Iowa it has now 
 been tested long enough to justify the belief that it is something 
 more than an interesting experiment, and that it may be re- 
 garded as offering a plan which will meet the growing social 
 needs in American states, especially so far as they are con- 
 cerned with the constructive social work. The plan provides a 
 central organization around which may group themselves the so- 
 cial activities of very different communities. It makes possible 
 the trained worker in the small town, while it may readily be 
 adapted to the needs of the large city. 
 
 Miss McClenahan, the author of the monograph, has been 
 the leader in the state in the wider use of the Iowa plan. In 
 
6 STUDIES IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES 
 
 the larger number of instances where it has been adopted, she 
 has made the preliminary survey in connection with her work 
 for the Extension Division of the State University of Iowa. 
 
 F. E. Hatnes 
 State University of Iowa, 
 Iowa City, Iowa. 
 
THE IOWA PLAN FOR THE 
 
 COMBINATION OF PUBLIC 
 
 AND PRIVATE RELIEF 
 
 I 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 When considering social problems, the custom has prevailed 
 to connect them especially with the large eastern cities. Con- 
 sequently few people yet realize that the middle west, especially 
 the Mississippi Valley, has its own problems, peculiar to the 
 region and different from those of the great city, but equally 
 important to the state, and vital to the individual. Since the 
 Men and Religion Forward Movement, there has been great 
 interest awakened in Iowa for social service. People are anx- 
 ious to do something that will result in definite benefit to their 
 neighbors or their towns. They have not always been clear as 
 to what they wanted to do, or what they could do, and the re- 
 sult has been considerable confusion of thought, plan, and 
 action, largely because there is a lack of acquaintance with 
 the legal provisions which Iowa has made to care for its poor 
 and dependent people. 
 
 Conditions in this state are different from the more populous 
 east, since Iowa is primarily an agricultural state, and ranks 
 high in wealth as a farming center. The census for 1915 shows 
 the total population to be 2,358,066.' Almost eighty-eight per 
 cent, or approximately nine-tenths, are native bom; 2,093,897 
 being native bom and only 264,169 being foreign bom.^ Only 
 seven of the ninety-nine counties have a population of over 
 50,000. These are Polk, 129,121; Woodbury, 82,815; Linn, 
 70,153; Scott, 65,645; Dubuque, 60,975; Pottawatomie, 56,896; 
 and Black Hawk, 53,469.^ In 1915, more than fifty-four per 
 
 (7) 
 
8 STUDIES IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES 
 
 cent of the entire population of the state resided in 893 incor- 
 porated cities and towns. Or to express it conversely, about 
 forty-six per cent of the population may be considered rural.* 
 Only fifteen cities have a population of more than 15,000. 
 There are ninety communities of from 2,000 to 15,000 popula- 
 tion and 788 of fewer than 2,000 persons.* Statistics for 1915 
 show two cities of more than 50,000 — Des Moines with 105,652 
 and Sioux City with 61,774.« 
 
 Since in Iowa there are few congested quarters, education is 
 easy to obtain, ajid throughout the state a spirit of neighbor- 
 liness is manifested, the chief problem may be described as that 
 of the social adjustment of the community. By this is meant 
 the securing of a harmonious working relationship of all social 
 agencies and organized groups, including public officials, 
 churches, schools, clubs, lodges, benevolent associations and busi- 
 ness men's organizations. For example, in one Iowa town of 
 5,000 population were discovered no fewer than 189 voluntary 
 groups, including churches, organized Sunday schools, and Sun- 
 day school classes organized on a club basis, fraternal organiza- 
 tions, such as lodges, and clubs for social, religious, and study 
 purposes. To secure the social adjustment of the community is 
 not a simple task since the problem has arisen, not so much on 
 account of bad local conditions as because of duplication of 
 social effort, of ignorance of local social resources, and of pos- 
 sible social programs. The problem is thus one of organization 
 and administration rather than, of the creation of new social 
 machinery. To solve it, the local situation must be studied sys- 
 tematically and scientifically, a definite social program for the 
 community worked out, and an efficient administration provided. 
 
II 
 
 PROVISIONS OF THE LAW GOVERNING 
 PUBLIC RELIEF 
 
 OUTDOOE RELIEF 
 
 In the laws of the state the provisions concerning the support 
 of the poor are given in the code under ' ' Title XII, ' ' which deals 
 with "The Police of the State."' The "poor" and "poor 
 person" are defined as those "who have no property, exempt 
 or otherwise, and are unable on account of mental or physical 
 disabilities to earn a living by labor." However, it is also 
 stated that aid is not forbidden for needy persons having some 
 means when the board of supervisors decides that such relief is 
 necessary for their welfare and the best interests of the public' 
 
 Effort is made to safeguard the funds for caring for the poor, 
 and the law explicitly states that the father, mother, and chil- 
 dren of any poor person shall be responsible for his or her main- 
 tenance ;' that in the absence or inability of nearer relatives the 
 liability shall extend to grandparents, if they have means other 
 than those secured by personal labor, and to male grandchildren 
 by personal labor or otherwise.'" If the relatives specified fail 
 to provide maintenance, resort may be had to the district court 
 for an order to compel such maintenance.^^ 
 
 Eligibility for receiving relief is closely connected with the 
 poor person's place of residence.'^ The provisions for acquir- 
 ing residence are as follows : 
 
 1. A person who has attained majority and residing in the state one 
 year without being warned to leave the county obtains residence in the 
 county where he lives." 
 
 2. A married woman has the residence of her husband if he has one 
 within the state. If she had a residence at the time of her marriage, she 
 does not lose it because of her marriage." 
 
 3. A married women abandoned by her husband may acquire residence 
 as if she were unmarried." 
 
 4. Children have the residence of their father, if he has one, and, if he 
 has none, that of the mother." 
 
 (») 
 
10 STUDIES IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES 
 
 5. Illegitimate children have the residence of their mother. If she haM 
 none, that of their putative father." 
 
 6. A minor whose parent has no residence in the state and a married 
 woman who lives apart from her husband and has no residence and whose 
 husband has no residence, obtains a residence by living one year in a 
 county." 
 
 7. A minor apprentice, immediately upon being bound, has the resi- 
 dence of his master." 
 
 The inference is that legal residence is dependent upon a 
 year's continuous living in a county. If a person coming from 
 another state applies for relief and does not have a residence in 
 Iowa, he may be sent to the state from which he came, at the 
 expense of the county under an order of the district court or 
 judge; but he may be temporarily relieved in the county where 
 he applies.*" Persons who come from another state or another 
 county of Iowa and who are believed likely to become county 
 charges, may be prevented from acquiring residence by being 
 served with a notice to depart from the county. After such a 
 warning has been given, residence cannot be acquired except by 
 living in the county for a period of one year from the date of 
 service. The person may be prevented from acquiring residence 
 by having a notice served each year.*^ The warning is served 
 on order of the township trustees or of the board of super- 
 visors.** 
 
 The matter of residence has often been a source of contention. 
 When relief is granted by the county to a poor person having 
 residence in another county, the auditor of the first county is 
 expected to notify by mail immediately the auditor of the county 
 in which the individual has residence. Within fifteen days after 
 receiving notice, this auditor must inform the auditor of the 
 county which granted the relief whether or not residence is 
 disputed. If it is not, the poor person, if able, may be removed 
 to the county of his residence, or, upon request of the auditor 
 or board of supervisors of that county, he may be maintained 
 where he is at the expense of the county of residence without 
 affecting his local residence.*' If the residence is disputed, the 
 matter is referred to the district court for settlement. The 
 county in which residence has been established is liable to the 
 county giving the relief for all expenses incurred in the relief 
 
THE IOWA PLAN 11 
 
 and care of a poor person, and for charges of removal and 
 expense of support incurred after notice is given. ^* 
 
 County boards of supervisors are charged with providing 
 funds for the care of the poor.^' The expense of supporting 
 the poor is paid out of the county treasury, and in case the 
 ordinary revenue of the county does not provide sufficient funds 
 for the support of the poor, the board may levy a poor tax not 
 exceeding two mills on the dollar.** 
 
 Township trustees act as overseers of the poor for their re- 
 spective townships. The poor must make application for relief 
 to them, and they may afford relief at public expense subject to 
 the approval of the board of supervisors. The trustees must 
 report to the board of supervisors, who may continue or deny 
 relief. All bills incurred by the township trustees for the 
 support of the poor are examined by the board of supervisors, 
 and, if the amounts seem unreasonable or exorbitant for goods 
 or services, the supervisors may reject or diminish the claim."' 
 If any poor person is refused the relief asked for by the trustees, 
 he may apply to the board of supervisors. If the board is 
 satisfied that the poor person should have relief, the board may 
 direct the trustees to give it.*' 
 
 When a city is embraced in whole or in part within the limits 
 of a township, the board of supervisors may appoint an overseer 
 of the poor, who shall have within the city or part thereof, all 
 the powers and duties given to township trustees. Relief may 
 consist of food, rent or clothing, fuel and lights, medical at- 
 tendance or money, and shall not exceed two dollars a week for 
 each person, exclusive of medical attendance. 
 
 Any able-bodied person may be required to work on the street 
 or highways at the prevailing local rate*' in payment for and as 
 a condition of receiving relief.'" Permission is given by law to 
 the board to pay an annual allowance to a poor person of ma- 
 ture years and sound mind who is likely to become a county 
 charge. This allowance, however, must not exceed the cost of 
 maintenance in the ordinary way.'' 
 
 The General Assembly of 1913 passed a law which is com- 
 monly referred to as the "widows' pension law." It provided 
 financial aid for widowed mothers, The section dealing with 
 
12 STUDIES IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES 
 
 this provision for relief is a part of the juvcBile court statutes.** 
 If the juvenile court finds that any child is dependent or 
 neglected/' and, that the mother and widow is poor and un- 
 able to care for the child, but is otherwise a proper guardian, 
 and that the child's welfare is best promoted by remaining at 
 home, the court may grant for the care of each child under six- 
 teen a sum not to exceed two dollars a week. The allowance 
 granted shall cease upon the child's attaining the age of six- 
 teen. After the allowance has been granted by the court, it is 
 the duty of the county board of supervisors through the over- 
 seer of the poor or otherwise to pay the amount specified. Any 
 mother whose husband is an inmate of an institution under the 
 state board of control shall, for the purpose of the law, be con- 
 sidered a widow, but only while her husband is so confined.** 
 
 There is another form of county relief which is not popularly 
 so considered and with which a great many citizens are not ac- 
 quainted. This is soldiers' relief. A tax of one mill on the 
 dollar or less, as needed, may be levied by the board of super- 
 visors to create a fund for the relief, and to pay the funeral ex- 
 pense of honorably discharged indigent United States soldiers, 
 sailors, and marines, and their indigent wives, widows, and 
 minor children not over fourteen, if boys, nor over sixteen, if 
 girls', who have a legal residence in the county.** Markers for 
 the graves of the soldiers may also be provided.'^ This fund 
 is dispensed by the soldiers' relief commission which consists 
 of three persons, two of whom must be honorably discharged 
 Union soldiers, sailors, or marines. These commissioners are 
 appointed by the board of supervisors and hold office for three 
 years.*' 
 
 In 1915, the legislature passed a law providing for county 
 aid for the blind, popularly called "blind pensions." All men 
 over twenty-one, and all women over eighteen who are found to 
 be blind by the examiner of the blind (a regular practicing 
 physician appointed by the board of supervisors) may, at the 
 discretion of the board of supervisors, receive one hundred and 
 fifty dollars per year, paid quarterly. The applicant must 
 go before the county clerk, and make affidavit that he or she is 
 eligible for aid to the blind. This must be accompanied by affi- 
 davits of two citizens stating that they have known the appli- 
 
THE lOW'A PLAN 13 
 
 eaoat to be a resident of the state for five years, and of the 
 county for one year preceding application.'* 
 
 The same year the legislature passed what is known as the 
 "Perkins law" which provides for medical and surgical treat- 
 ment for indigent children at the hospital of the State Univer- 
 sity at Iowa City, the expense for such care being paid by the 
 state. However, the cost for an attendant to take the child to 
 or from the hospital, or for a person to investigate the complaint 
 (when the person is other than parent, relative, or officer re- 
 ceiving a fixed salary), is paid by the board of supervisors out 
 of county funds collected for the relief of the poor.*" 
 
 INDOOR RELIEF 
 
 Indoor relief is care provided in institutions. The board of 
 supervisors of each county is authorized to establish a county 
 home whenever it is deemed advisable, and to purchase land 
 necessary for its use.^" The county home is administered by a 
 steward appointed by the board of supervisors.^' Any person 
 may be received who has a written order from a township trus- 
 tee or a member of the board of supervisors.*' "When inmates 
 of the county home become able to support themselves, the board 
 of supervisors must order their discharge.*' Persons admitted 
 to the county home may be required to perform such reasonable 
 labor as their age and bodily strength permit.** Poor children 
 when cared for at the county home shall attend the district 
 school, and the county shall pay the school district for the chil- 
 dren in attendance.** 
 
 The law provides that a city of the first class** and a special 
 charter city*' may establish an infirmary for the dependent poor 
 and may raise funds for the distribution of outdoor relief. So 
 far as is known, this law has not been taken advantage of in 
 Iowa. 
 
 County wards are cared for in the different state institutions, 
 each county paying a per capita monthly charge for its resi- 
 dents.** Inmates of these institutions who do not have any 
 county residence are considered "state charges," and their per 
 capita cost is paid by the state.*" 
 
14 STUDIES IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES 
 
 The per capita cost is as follows : 
 
 Cherokee State Hospital $17.00 a month 
 
 Clarinda State Hospital 16.00 
 
 Soldiers' Orphans' Home, Davenport, 
 
 for indigent children 7.50 
 
 for soldiers ' children, entire cost is borne by the state .... 15.00 
 
 Independence State Hospital 17.00 
 
 State Hospital for Inebriates, Knoxville 15.00 
 
 Mt. Pleasant State Hospital 16.00 
 
 State Sanitorium, Oakdale - 45.00 
 
 State Hospital and Colony for Epileptics, Woodward 15.00 
 
 In addition to these costs, the counties are obliged to pay for 
 the clothing and transportation for students of the School for 
 the Deaf* at Council Bluffs, and for the inmates of the Institu- 
 tion for Feeble-minded Children at Glenwood.'"' The state pro- 
 vides all the expenses of students at the College for the Blind,* 
 located at Vinton, except clothing which may be charged to the 
 county of residence. ^^ All blind persons residents of the state 
 of suitable age and capacity are entitled to an education at this 
 institution at the expense of the state. Non-residents, if they 
 can be accommodated, may attend upon payment of sixty-six 
 dollars quarterly in advance.** 
 
 ♦The School for Deaf and the CoUege for the Blind have both been trans- 
 ferred from the State Board of Control to the State Board of Education. 
 
Ill 
 
 ADMINISTRATION IN POLK COUNTY 
 
 As an indication of the situation in other counties, though it 
 must be kept in mind that they are not duplicates of Polk 
 County, the poor law will be outlined as administered in this 
 county. Polk County is chosen because it is the largest in 
 population; has developed all the provisions of the law; has 
 clung to the literal interpretation of the law; and so presents 
 the most complete operation of the poor law. In addition, the 
 writer is especially familiar with Polk County because of having 
 worked in cooperation with the county authorities for four 
 years. The facts are given frankly, in order to mak« clear the 
 different factors which have determined the character of the 
 relief administration. It should also be stated that the criticism 
 is directed at the machinery and not at the agents of the law. 
 The latter are many times handicapped by conditions over 
 which they have no control, and which they would improve were 
 it in their power. 
 
 Polk County contains Des Moines, the largest city in the state. 
 Des Moines is not distinctively a manufacturing city, though it 
 has numerous factories. The population of the county is 129,121 
 and of Des Moines, 105,652.^^ Outside of Des Moines, farming 
 interests dominate. In Des Moines are many professional peo- 
 ple, attorneys, physicians, business men and teachers. Trade 
 unions are well developed, but there are also many common or 
 unskilled laborers, and near the city are numerous coal-mining 
 camps. "Wages for skilled labor are good, salaries are compara- 
 tively high, and the county exhibits a considerable degree of 
 prosperity. 
 
 In outlining the situation in Polk County the discussion will 
 be largely confined to county relief as administered in the county 
 seat, Des Moines. The necessity for relief exists principally 
 among the less efficient and unskilled laborers. Their wages 
 are low, averaging about twelve dollars a week, and their house 
 
 (IB) 
 
16 STUDIES IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES 
 
 rent averages about ten dollars a month/* They are dependent 
 for their employment largely upon the building trades, and 
 thus are the first to be discharged in the fall and the last to be 
 employed in the spring. They are the marginal men econom- 
 ically, and sickness, misfortune, or unemployment soon forces 
 them across the poverty line from independenee to dependence. 
 In addition to the resident families who apply for relief are the 
 transients or "floaters" from all parts of the state or from 
 neighboring states, who are attracted to Des Moines not only 
 because it is a large city, easy of access by railroad, but because 
 it is a convenient stopping-off place between Omaha and Chi- 
 cago. This element is dif&cult to deal with and complicates the 
 problem of efScient relief administration. 
 
 In considering county relief as provided through taxation, 
 one of the first things to be noted is that the county poor relief 
 is called the ' ' pauper fund, ' '** and that every recipient of coun- 
 ty aid is thereby branded a "pauper."'"* This fact has some- 
 times even been naively explained to the applicant. The term 
 is a relic from earlier days, and one that ought long since to 
 have been discarded, because of the social stigma it is apt to 
 place upon the self-respecting poor man forced to apply for 
 assistance. 
 
 OUTDOOR RELIEF 
 
 Outdoor relief is that given in the homes of the poor of the 
 county. The provision for outdoor relief as already stated, is 
 comprehensive. The county board of supervisors is responsible 
 for the tax levy and all expenditures, and appoints for Des 
 Moines, the county seat, an overseer of the poor who deals with 
 those applicants who live within the city limits. The overseer 
 decides what is to be done for these people. The board may 
 overrule him but practically never does. The board, or the 
 chairman of the pauper committee, which is a committee of 
 three supervisors to look after the interests of paupers and in- 
 sane, may suggest or recommend certain action, and the over- 
 seer usually does as is suggested. Commissary supplies of good 
 quality which are purchased wholesale, are kept in the store 
 room at the court house and dispensed weekly by the overseer. 
 
THE IOWA PLAN 17 
 
 The amount has usually been limited to two dollars a week, at 
 wholesale prices, for the ordinary sized family. In cases where 
 necessary the county pays four dollars a month rent, and oc- 
 casionally eight or ten dollars a month. One ton of coal a month 
 is the usual allowance. The county also provides medical aid 
 in the homes. 
 
 County relief is limited to those families who have lived at 
 least one year continuously in the county, preceding their appli- 
 cation for aid. Transportation is granted to non-residents to 
 their homes, or to residents in case they can show they have 
 relatives to care for them at their destination, or some other 
 prospect of caring for themselves, and also when it is evident 
 that the local county will be relieved of a dependent. Clothing 
 is seldom purchased by the overseer of the poor because there 
 are a number of privately supported societies which supply it. 
 County burial, for both resident and non-resident poor, provides 
 a grave in the single range, each grave numbered and the burial 
 recorded, a decent casket, shroud, and ambulance to convey the 
 casket to the cemetery. 
 
 The matter of residence is a determining factor in securing re- 
 lief. The usual practice of the overseer of the poor for Des Moines 
 is not to relieve non-residents in their homes. Occasionally de- 
 pendent non-residents are sent to the county home. If non- 
 T-poirlpnts are committed to any state institution from Polk 
 County, three methods are followed: (a) if residence cannot be 
 located, the patients are sent as state charges and the state pays 
 for their care. This method is limited to patients sent to hos- 
 pitals for the insane; (b) in the case of patients sent to the 
 hospital for inebriates, the county from which they are sent 
 pays the bill whether the inebriates are residents or not; (c) 
 if non-residents are adjudged insane, and their residence can be 
 located in the state, the patients are sent as patients from their 
 county of residence, if residence is acknowledged; or they may 
 be sent to the county seat for the local authorities of their county 
 of residence to make the disposition. 
 
 Polk County also makes an effort to collect from the different 
 counties money that has been spent for the care of their resi- 
 dents. Collection of these sums is not always successful, some- 
 
18 STUDIES IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES 
 
 times because the county to which the bill is sent disclaims the 
 county's liability on the ground that the individual or family 
 does not have residence there, or because notice was not sent to 
 the county auditor, and so liability was not acknowledged and 
 the expenditure guaranteed. 
 
 While the law provides that notice to leave the county may 
 be served on an individual or family likely to become dependent, 
 thus preventing the acquiring of residence within a year after 
 such notice is served, and even preventing it after the first year 
 by serving notice each year, the practice in Polk County is to 
 serve only the first notice. However, it should be noted that 
 an individual or a family cannot be forced to leave the county. 
 Their going is a voluntary matter; if they decide to go, the 
 county will usually pay transportation, but if they stay, the 
 county usually refuses county aid, at least until after the first 
 year has expired. 
 
 An interesting example of the attitude of the county in the 
 matter of residence is shown in the following history -." 
 
 In October, 1912, a husband, his wife, and three children 
 moved to Des Moines from Kansas City, coming at the sug- 
 gestion of the man's parents. The family had previously lived 
 in Des Moines, but had been away about five years, and had 
 consequently lost residence. The husband had paresis and was 
 developing insanity. For a while the family lived with the 
 parents. But the house was not large enough for two families, 
 and a month's rent was paid for a four room cottage, and the 
 son's family moved. Now said the mother, "Let some one else 
 take care of my son and his family. ' ' The son 's wife applied for 
 county aid and was refused. The mother, in spite of the fact 
 that she had two unmarried sons both of whom were working 
 and living with her, refused to help the dependent family. As 
 a result private relief societies and interesed individuals bore 
 the burden,. A notice to leave the county was served, but the 
 wife refused to consider returning to Kansas City. The husband 
 became worse and was committed to one of the state hospitals 
 as a state charge. The wife then made application for a widow's 
 pension, but was refused on the basis of non-residence. At 
 length private aid was discontinued, but the offer of a home for 
 
THE IOWA PLAN 19 
 
 the children in an orphanage was made. Then the mother who 
 was responsible for the removal to Des Moines, and who had 
 calmly unloaded the hurden of their support on the community, 
 came forward, and the family once more moved into her home. 
 In May, 1914, application was again made for a widow's pension, 
 and the judge granted twelve dollars a month.^* 
 
 The law provides that the coimty can give employment to the 
 needy poor, but this has never been made effective to the writer's 
 knowledge.'' The law states than any able-bodied person may 
 be required to labor faithfully on the streets or highways at the 
 prevailing local rate in payment for and as a condition of grant- 
 ing relief, said labor to be under the direction of the officers hav- 
 ing charge of working the streets and highways.^" During the 
 winters of 1912-1913 and 1913-1914, many families, in which 
 there were able-bodied men, were relieved by the overseer of 
 the poor because the men could not get work. The weather was 
 severe, and the county was forced to give aid to prevent suffer- 
 ing. This would have been a good time to make use of the law, 
 but no effort was made to do so. Here is an, instance of waste 
 due to failure to link the different departments of county work, 
 and so make the whole system effective.^' In Des Moines the city 
 authorities tried to relieve imemployment by giving a limited 
 number of hours of work on the streets to many men instead of 
 regular work to a few, but the plan was short-lived. 
 
 In deciding what should be done for a family the primary 
 consideration of the county authorities often is not what is best 
 but what is cheapest. Is it cheaper to buy transportation and 
 send out of the county and state people who are sick, or 
 provide for them adequately at home? Is it cheaper to break 
 up a home temporarily by sending the father to the county hos- 
 pital, and the children to the detention home, leaving the mother 
 to shift for herself, or give a small amount of weekly aid to keep 
 the home together? Is it cheaper to separate an old couple who 
 have lived together half a century, and send them to the county 
 home, or provide for them where they can be together? 
 
 The question of the transportation of indigent people arises 
 in this connection. Formerly it was quite customary in almost 
 all parts of the country to buy railroad tickets and to send de- 
 
20 STUDIES IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES 
 
 pendents from one county seat to the next. It seemed the 
 cheapest way, and it was decidedly the easiest, but in the end it 
 proved to be expensive. It developed a horde of wandering 
 beggars, who were quite content to travel at the expense of the 
 different counties. Frequently applicants at the office of the 
 Associated Charities in Des Moines have told of their wide trav- 
 els, made without a cent of expense to themselves. Of course it 
 is not fair to the community, to the tax-payer, or to these wan- 
 derers themselves. This practice of "shipping on" is still fol- 
 lowed in a great many communities. It does not need to be em- 
 phasized that it is a wasteful and extravagant method. Many 
 communities, through their officers, have become signers of the 
 transportation code, thereby agreeing that they will not provide 
 transportation for anyone until they have communicated with 
 the desired destination, and have learned that the individual or 
 family has relatives there, or will be cared for. While not a 
 signer of the transportation code, Polk County is usually care- 
 ful in issuing transportation, and some evidence must be pro- 
 duced giving good reasons for the purchase of a ticket by the 
 county. 
 
 In a study made by the Associated Charities of Des Moines, it 
 is interesting to note that in the year 1912 about one sixth of the 
 applicants were single men and women, who were for the most 
 part homeless and transient.** The society has had more success 
 in dealing with single women than with single men. The woman 
 is usually not quite so imbued with the spirit of wandering, and 
 for that reason is more amenable to some plan for a steady fu- 
 ture. Little success is reported with the transient man. Time, 
 money, and effort have been spent on some who promised to be- 
 come desirable citizens, but the efforts have failed usually just 
 when the men were in a position to become independent. 
 
 Investigations of the needs of applicants for relief are not 
 always thorough and close acquaintance with changing condi- 
 tions of the family is not always cultivated. For instance, one 
 family had been receiving aid for several years because the 
 father was thought to be suffering from tuberculosis. Quite by 
 accident, it was discovered that both husband and wife were 
 working, and earning together about eighty dollars a month. 
 
THE IOWA PLAN 21 
 
 The wife explained that she thought the county supplies were 
 "just so much to the good," and that it had enabled them to 
 save more. If this man, had been under the constant oversight 
 of the county physician and the visiting nurse, and required to 
 report regularly for examination, the overseer would have been 
 conversant with the family's ability to take care of itself without 
 aid from the county. 
 
 For some time investigations of applications for county relief 
 were make by a private society, The Associated Charities of 
 Des Moines, working in close cooperation with the overseer of 
 the poor. The following statement of the overseer is eloquent 
 of the results of careful work : 
 
 Having been appointed to the position of overseer o£ the poor of Des 
 Moines, Polk County, Iowa, Augvtst 1st, 1905, I conceived the idea that 
 careful investigations and visiting of homes, which have never before been 
 practiced in this city, would be a great benefit to the tax payers. I have 
 now been in the work for nearly two years, and am convinced that the 
 visiting of homes has partly resulted in the following saving for the tax 
 payers of Polk County, Iowa: 
 Number of families who received aid in the year 1905, 490 
 
 With expenditures of $11,887.91 
 
 Number of families who received aid in the year 1906, 252 
 
 With expenditures of $ 6,988.31 
 
 a saving to the tax payers of Polk County in one year of $4,899.60. The 
 increase of population in the year 1906 was about ten thousand. 
 
 I would recommend that those who occupy the position of the overseer 
 of the poor, and who are working in the interest of the tax payers of their 
 counties, work in harmony with the Associated Charities. Por, as overseer 
 of the poor of the metropolis of Iowa, I feel convinced that they have 
 been instrumental in causing a saving of many dollars to the tax payers 
 of Polk county. Their aim is to teach those who apply for county aid to 
 be independent and self-supporting, getting them employment, etc. On 
 several occasions, I have recommended people who applied for county aid, 
 to first visit the Secretary of the Associated Charities, who kindly gave 
 some of them emergent aid for the sake of preventing them, if possible, 
 from becoming county charges, and strange to say, some of them have re- 
 turned to my oflElce to thank me for my kindness in recommending them 
 to the Associated Charities, and thus saving them from becoming public 
 charges." 
 
 Under this plan of close cooperation there was a general 
 division of cases between the overseer of the poor and the 
 Associated Charities. The former took care of those requiring 
 
22 STUDIES IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES 
 
 continuous aid and the latter of the emergency and temporary 
 cases. This prevented many families from being placed on the 
 county books. Cooperation between the county and the Asso- 
 ciated Charities fluctuates with the changes in the office of the 
 overseer of the poor. During the winter of 1913-1914, when the 
 cooperation was not so close, it sometimes happened that families 
 who were being aided by the Associated Charities to prevent 
 their becoming county charges, were also receiving county aid. 
 This involved waste and prevented constructive work, i. e. 
 putting of families in a position to care for themselves. During 
 the winter of 1915-1916, a working agreement existed between 
 the Associated Charities and the overseer of the poor. The appli- 
 cants needing temporary assistance were provided for by the 
 Associated Charities, while those needing help for a considerable 
 period of time, were aided by the overseer of the poor. 
 
 Until recently the county records of poor relief were inade- 
 quate. They consisted of stubs of order books and the ledgers 
 in which they had been posted. The names of the families who 
 had been aided were not arranged in careful alphabetical order 
 and almost no family data were given. To learn the amount of 
 aid given to a family for a series of years, it was necessary to 
 look through one ledger after another. However, during 1915, 
 a family record system was installed.** 
 
 Outside of the city limits of Des Moines the township trustees 
 act as overseers of the poor and may provide whatever is needed 
 for the poor in each township. The bills are approved by them 
 and sent to the board of supervisors for payment. 
 
 Polk County presents in Valley Junction an unusual varia- 
 tion of administration. Valley Junction is a town, of 3,000 peo- 
 ple located immediately west of Des Moines, and has no 
 township trustees. In this case the city council acts in 
 place of the township trustees and provides for the needy 
 poor. The bills incurred are approved and sent to the super- 
 visors for payment. It is not necessary, however, to bring cases 
 before the city council, as they may be referred directly to the 
 county board of supervisors.*' 
 
 While widows' pensions are granted by the juvenile court, 
 the county board of supervisors is responsible for providing the 
 
THE IOWA PLAN 23 
 
 money for them. In Polk County investigations of applications 
 for widows' pensions are made by the three juvenile court or 
 probation officers. When the case is heard, the county attorney 
 questions the witnesses in open court, and on the evidence pro- 
 duced the judge decides the amount of the pension. The money 
 for widows' pensions is paid from county funds. '^ 
 
 Since the county must pay a certain sum for the care of chil- 
 dren by the state, advocates of the Iowa law claimed that it 
 would save the counties money by keeping children out of state 
 institutions. As a matter of fact, pensions are not granted as 
 an alternative for institutional care, nor has the operation of 
 the law resulted in removing children from institutions. The 
 county was already caring for widows through the existing 
 systems of outdoor relief, and the new method of widows' pen- 
 sions really became another county agency for outdoor relief. 
 The practical working basis in Polk County is, that after a wid- 
 ows' pension is granted, all aid coming through the overseer 
 ceases. If the court withholds a pension on the ground that evi- 
 dence is not forthcoming to prove the need for it, the county 
 refuses relief on the ground that it has been proved that the 
 widow does not need county aid. 
 
 Investigations of applications for widows' pensions are some- 
 times meagre. In one ease a pension of ten dollars a month 
 was granted after the widow had been placed in the witness 
 chair and questioned by the county attorney. There was no 
 written report from the probation ofSoer, though the officer had 
 given a brief verbal report to the judge before the case was 
 heard. The questioning of the widow did not reveal the fact 
 that she had received damages from a railroad company be- 
 cause of the death of her husband, that a part of this money had 
 been spent for a home, and that the home had been lost because 
 payments could not be made on account of failing health; aU 
 evidence vital to the situation. In many cases, there is a lack 
 of follow-up work, i. e. no planning of budgets and expendi- 
 tures, and not enough checking up of the situation to learn if 
 the pension, as granted, should be increased, lessened, or dis- 
 continued. 
 
24 STUDIES IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES 
 
 In Polk County, the soldiers' relief commission whose duty- 
 is the relief of destitute old soldiers, their wives, and their minor 
 children, is constantly handicapped for money. The commis- 
 sioners complain that the levy is too small to meet the needs, 
 and that they are even forced to borrow at the bank to meet the 
 demands. The commission works in close cooperation with the 
 Women's Relief Corps and the Grand Army of the Republic in 
 aiding soldiers and their families in their own homes, and 
 also with the Soldiers' Home at Marshalltown, where many old 
 soldiers and their wives are sent. Soldiers' relief is usually 
 dispensed by check in amounts from two to six dollars a month, 
 the average being about four dollars; burial expense to the 
 amount of fifty dollars may be allowed, and a grant may be 
 made of transportation of indigent soldiers or their wives to 
 Marshalltown (the Soldiers' Home), or to a desired destination, 
 place of residence, or place where relatives will provide for 
 them. 
 
 The Polk County board of supervisors share the administra- 
 tion of relief with the city of Des Moines in the following way: 
 quarantine cases which must be relieved are taken care of by 
 the city health officers, orders for necessities being given on local 
 grocery stores and coal offices. These bills, after being approved, 
 are sent to the board of supervisors for payment. This is the 
 only aid dispensed by the city authorities with the exception of 
 a small amount allowed from city funds, and used by the city 
 physician for transportation of non-resident sick to their homes. 
 However, tickets may be purchased only to the border of the 
 state, and if the patient must go farther, the balance of the 
 money must be secured otherwise, or the patient is left to his 
 own devices to secure a ticket to his destination outside the 
 state. To illustrate, a foreigner, a Slavic miner, was taken sick. 
 His countrymen cared for him as long as they could and then 
 appealed for assistance. The man wanted to go to a small town 
 not far from Peoria, Illinois. A telegram to the mayor of the 
 town brought back the reply : ' ' Send him back ; we will care for 
 him." The city physician bought the man's ticket to Daven- 
 port, and the Associated Charities provided a ticket for the re- 
 mainder of the journey." 
 
THE IOWA PLAN 25 
 
 The city makes no provision for the care of non-residents, ex- 
 cept for medical treatment, and the non-resident poor must be 
 cared for by the private relief societies, or sent to their places 
 of residence. For several years, during the winter months, the 
 city conducted a municipal lodging house for the care of tran- 
 sient men. This was discontinued as a city institution, and at 
 the present time the only provision for transients made by the 
 city is to give them lodging and breakfast at the city jail. 
 
 Cases of accident, acute sickness of non-residents, and other 
 emergent medical cases, even of residents, are taken care of by 
 the city, and hospital care for these patients is paid for by the 
 city, if such care is required. There is a city physician as well 
 as a city health officer. The city physician answers emergency 
 calls and visits the non-resident sick in their homes. There is 
 sometimes considerable quibbling as to whether the city or the 
 county physician should answer calls, the question at issue being 
 the residence of the patient. 
 
 The county's sick, i. e. the resident poor who are sick, are 
 given medical attention by the county physician, a local doctor 
 employed by the supervisors. He visits the sick poor in their 
 homes upon order of the overseer of the poor, and also cares for 
 the people at the county home, and visits the three county hos- 
 pitals. Advanced eases of tuberculosis are cared for at the 
 county tuberculosis hospital, and cases of chronic diseases at the 
 county hospital. In acute and operative cases of resident poor, 
 the county physician may place the sick in wards at the Meth- 
 odist, Mercy, Des Moines General, or Lutheran hospitals, and 
 the county pays the bills when approved by the county physi- 
 cian or the overseer of the poor. In some instances where pri- 
 vate physicians are caring for cases as charity patients, the over- 
 seer of the poor or the county physician may authorize entrance 
 to one of the hospitals and the county pays the hospital bills. 
 
 For a time the Polk county board of supervisors appropriated 
 seventy -five dollars a month to the Visiting Nurses' Association, 
 and the nurse was then subject to call by the overseer or county 
 physician. In the fall of 1913, the supervisors decided to em- 
 ploy a nurse of their own. The allowance to the Visiting Nurses' 
 Association was discontinued and a former visiting nurse em- 
 
26 STUDIES IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES 
 
 ployed. She did much of the interviewing and calling on behalf 
 of the overseer of the poor, and was required to call on the 
 county sick when sent by the county physician. During 1915 
 this trained nurse was elected overseer of the poor, and the su- 
 pervisors again in 1916 made an appropriation to the Visiting 
 Nurses' Association in return for the services of a visiting 
 nurse. 
 
 In evolving a plan to enable the family to help itself, the 
 county may bring to its support some good laws for the treat- 
 ment of certain cases of family dependence. If a woman ap- 
 plies for aid, telling of a deserting or non-supporting husband, 
 the county aids only on condition that the woman, will appear 
 before the grand jury and will give testimony against her hus- 
 band in accordance with the desertion law.*' The contributory 
 dependency law^' provides for bringing into juvenile court a 
 father who is a drunkard or a non-supporter. The judge may 
 appoint a guardian, who has the authority to put the man to 
 work and draw his wages for the benefit of the family. If the 
 man refuses to cooperate with the guardian in accordance with 
 the court's order, he is subject to punishment for contempt of 
 court. So far as the writer knows no such case has been carried 
 through contempt proceedings. 
 
 While a remarkably good feeling prevails between private and 
 public agencies in Des Moines, no definite plan of coordination* 
 has resulted. The situation is complicated by a large number 
 of private charitable agencies. Among these there is much over- 
 lapping of function, and consequently a waste of time, energy, 
 and money. The situation in regard to employment is a good 
 illustration of the duplication of function. In 1913, there were 
 eight different private agencies in Des Moines trying to oper- 
 ate in this field. They were (1) Associated Charities, (2) 
 Young "Women's Christian Association, (3) Young Men's 
 Christian Association, (4) Salvation Army, (5) Volunteers of 
 America, (6) Iowa Public Welfare League, (7) Roadside Set- 
 tlement, (8) Scott Street Day Nursery. All of these agencies 
 were spending a certain amount of time in the effort to secure 
 
 •In December 1917, a Public Welfare Bureau was established as a depart- 
 ment of the Des Moines Chamber of Commerce. This Bureau conducted a 
 financial campaign for twenty-two local charities, all of which are members 
 of the Bureau. 
 
THE IOWA PLAN 27 
 
 employment for applicants when their forces might have been 
 combined and one worker employed to take charge of a central 
 employment office. This is only one instance of duplication of 
 function in the field of charitable endeavor. During the winter 
 of 1914-1915 a central employment office was established at the 
 municipal building, but it was operated only for a few months. 
 The Associated Charities actually spent about five hundred dol- 
 lars to place applicants in the country and to close the business 
 of the central bureau.'" 
 
 Duplication of work by the agencies in Des Moines has been 
 greatly lessened since 1915 by the establishment of a confiden- 
 tial exchange called the Social Service Registration Bureau. 
 This has the support of the business men, and each charitable 
 agency is required to register with the Bureau the names of 
 all its beneficiaries, and to subscribe a certain amount towards 
 the Bureau's support as conditions of endorsement by the Re- 
 tail Merchants' Bureau." This endorsement is a prerequisite 
 demanded by the Chamber of Commerce before contributions 
 may be solicited from its members. 
 
 INDOOR RELIEF 
 
 The county institution, familiarly known as the "Poor Farm" 
 has four distinct departments. (1) The county home has a ward 
 for men, and in a separate building, a ward for women. "When 
 an aged couple is sent to the ' ' Farm, ' ' they are separated. The 
 women 's ward is on the lower floor of the central brick building, 
 on the upper floor of which is the county hospital. The county 
 has made a rule not to give outdoor relief, i. e. relief in the home, 
 to families in which are no minor children although, of course, 
 no one can be compelled to go to the home. The practice of re- 
 fusing outdoor relief to this class of dependents has been quite 
 generally followed, though there have been exceptions. In 1916 
 the coimty home was reported as crowded and inadequate for all 
 the people needing its care, and, to meet this situation, the 
 county provided cash relief or boarded out its clients, giving or- 
 ders for their care and keep, which averaged about twelve dol- 
 lars a month. About one-third of the families receiving out- 
 door relief in 1916, were childless old couples." (2) The county 
 
28 STUDIES IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES 
 
 hospital cares for chronic cases of disease or for cases which are 
 not acute enough or of such serious character as to require to 
 be taken to one of the city hospitals. Minor operations are often 
 performed. (3) A hospital for the treatment of advanced cases 
 of tuberculosis, the capacity of which is ten beds, is located on 
 the grounds of the county farm.* (4) Located near the tuber- 
 culosis hospital is the county hospital for the insane. As a rule 
 cases considered incurable are cared for in the county hospitaL 
 In accordance with the law patients at the state hospitals who 
 are pronounced incurable may under certain conditions be trans- 
 ferred from the stat« hospitals to the county hospital.''' 
 
 Besides the indoor relief at the county farm the county pays 
 a stipulated amount, fixed by the state and uniform for all coun- 
 ties, for the insane, for inebriates, for incipient cases of tuber- 
 culosis, and for other county charges cared for at state insti- 
 tutions. 
 
 •October 15, 1917, Polk County voted bonds for $100,000 for a site and bulld- 
 *^Ff for a Tuberculosis Hospital to be In the confines of Des Moines. Capacity 
 will be fifty beds. 
 
IV 
 COST OF POOR RELIEF IN IOWA 
 
 Iowa is a prosperous rural state and is not popularly supposed 
 to have serious problems of poverty. Financial reports prove 
 that the reverse is true. Of the ninety-nine counties only two 
 have no county homes. In one of these the dependents who 
 would ordinarily be sent to the county home are "boarded out;" 
 in the other, their care is contracted for. Almost 20,000 acres 
 are included in county farms in Iowa, while the appraised val- 
 uation of county homes and county farms in eighty-four coun- 
 ties was given as $4,400,522 in 1915. According to the same re- 
 port 2,555 persons were cared for in eighty-five county homes in 
 1915,''^ and the net cost, exclusive of investment, of eighty-two 
 county homes was $354,943.64 for 1915.'* It has not been pos- 
 sible to secure complete reports of the cost for all of the ninety- 
 nine counties. The cost of county hospitals or wards in the 
 county homes for care of the insane is included in the general 
 cost of county homes. 
 
 The amount expended for outdoor relief in seventy-five coun- 
 ties totaled, for 1915, $638,949.17.'« The Soldier's Relief Com- 
 missions in ninety-four counties expended $177,472.28 in 1915," 
 while widows' pensions amounted to $153,810.49 for the same 
 year. ''8 For 1915, therefore, the cost of the county homes, 
 of outdoor poor relief, of widows' pensions, and of soldiers' re- 
 lief in Iowa was $1,325,176.20 and this sum does not include the 
 large amount of money that the state pays for the care of coun- 
 ty patients at the different state institutions, nor does it include 
 the cost of caring for dependent, defective, or delinquent chil- 
 dren. 
 
 During the biennial period, 1914 to 1916, the amounts paid by 
 the counties for the support of county patients in hospitals for 
 the insane was $1,448,757.61 ;" for inebriates, $56,355.41 ;«« and 
 in the Iowa Soldiers' Orphans' Home, $76,233.61." The balance 
 
 (29) 
 
30 STUDIES IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES 
 
 of the cost of these institutions is paid by the state. Expendi- 
 tures for support for the biennial period, 1914 to 1916, for the 
 Soldiers' Home, the Soldiers' Orphans' Home, the School foir 
 the Deaf, the School for the Feeble-Minded, the State Sanator- 
 ium for the Treatment of Tuberculosis, the Industrial Schools 
 for Boys and Girls, the State Hospitals for the Insane, the State 
 Colony for Epileptics, the State Hospital for Inebriates, the 
 State Penitentiary, and the State Reformatory totaled $4,064,- 
 789.94. The expenditures from special funds for these insti- 
 tutions and for tho Women's Reformatory during the same 
 period was $1,484,871.29. The twenty-seven private institutions 
 for friendless children report total disbursements of $397,212.51 
 for the year ending December 31, 1915.'* 
 
V 
 VARIATIONS OF ADMINISTRATION 
 
 By means of a questionnaire*' effort was made to obtain some 
 idea of th^ methods of administration in use in the ninety-nine 
 counties in Iowa. The replies indicate that scientific methods 
 are not in general use. 
 
 In answer to the question of time of residence required for 
 eligibility for county relief the replies show a variation of 
 from sixty days to a year. Transients are treated somewhat uni- 
 formly; temporary aid, notice to leave the county, and attempts 
 to collect the amount of aid given from the home county, consti- 
 tute the usual program. As to transportation, the unwise prac- 
 tice of "shipping on" is still too much in evidence. The fol- 
 lowing replies are indicative: "Pass along to the next county 
 seat, if it is evident that it is cheapest ; " " Serve notice ; " " Give 
 transportation if it will rid the county of them;" "Buy ticket 
 and ship them towards home;" "Give ticket to next county 
 seat in direction they want to go ; " " Transportation is a saving 
 in many eases." Some counties limit transportation to women, 
 old men, the sick, and cripples. A few counties refuse transpor- 
 tation until adequate investigation can be made. Their method 
 is to communicate with responsible persons at the desired des- 
 tination, and to purchase transportation, if evidence is forth- 
 coming that the applicant has residence there or will be cared 
 for. Transportation, when granted, should be given, however, 
 to destination, and not just to the next county seat. It should 
 be given able-bodied applicants only under extraordinary con- 
 ditions. Employment should be offered instead. 
 
 The majority of counties keep practically no family data, such 
 as names of members of the family, ages, accurate address, rent 
 paid, occupation, income, and resources. Usually the name of 
 the head of the family is secured and occasionally the number of 
 children and the income. Ordinarily the address is noted and 
 
 (81) 
 
32 STUDIES IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES 
 
 sometimes the amount of rent paid. A new overseer has very 
 few data to acquaint him with the famili€S who have had county- 
 aid, and a change in regime is an excuse for possible applicants 
 to take advantage of the new incumbent. Nearly all of the 
 counties keep records of relief by means of stubs of order blanks 
 and ledgers. A few counties have a good card system, which 
 can usually be traced to the immediate influence of organized 
 charity methods. The printed financial reports of the different 
 counties do not give the number of families aided. In one town 
 the overseer's report stated that the total number of applicants 
 for the year was 2,920, but the overseer had simply added the 
 number of applicants for each month regardless of the fact 
 that some of them were continued cases. As a matter of fact, 
 somewhat fewer than 200 different families had received relief, 
 excluding the transient or non-resident cases.** A few counties 
 still publish a list of families aided,'' a plan which is most humil- 
 iating to the applicant. 
 
 In one city it was found that the overseer of the poor had no 
 system of records or even a ledger account of relief disbursed. 
 The carbon copies of orders issued were the only records kept 
 by him. The county auditor, of course, kept the bills paid by 
 the county for poor relief.'* Since this study was made, the 
 county in question has installed a system of individual family 
 records. 
 
 Three methods of purchasing supplies for outdoor relief were 
 found: (1) buying at wholesale prices and conducting a store 
 room from which supplies are given out in needed quantities by 
 the overseer;'' (2) contracting with a retail grocery, which has 
 been the lowest bidder, to furnish staple supplies to applicants 
 on order from the overseer;" and (3) giving orders on local re- 
 tail stores." Under the last plan orders may be specific or may 
 be "bulk orders" which indicate the amount of merchandise 
 but not the kind and quantity. 
 
 In one city a study of the local situation showed that the over- 
 seer of the poor had but little authority and was practically 
 serving as a clerk to distribute relief in accordance with action 
 taken by the board of supervisors.*" The general investigations 
 were not up to the recognized standard, and the record system 
 
THE IOWA PLAN 33 
 
 was found inadequate. Bulk orders, stating that a certain firm 
 should give to the bearer groceries to a certain amount, were 
 used instead of definite orders based upon needs. A committee 
 of the supervisors heard applications for relief and determined 
 the amount to be given. The same committee seemed to assume 
 the granting of widows' pensions.'^ 
 
 Three methods of providing medical care for the poor in their 
 homes were found. (1) The supervisors appoint a local physi- 
 cian at a fixed yearly salary to answer calls to the homes of 
 needy people after the call has been approved by the overseer 
 of the poor. The same physician may also, and usually does, 
 care for the patients at the county home and the county jail. 
 (2) The supervisors pay local physicians for calls upon the sick 
 upon an order from the overseer of the poor, either at regular 
 or at special rates. This method allows the poor families to name 
 the physician they prefer and assures the physician his pay. (3) 
 The supervisors grant a sum each year to the county medical 
 association in return for which the members agree to answer all 
 calls upon order from the overseer of the poor. This process 
 results in rotation of physicians, different physicians serving 
 in turn for a specified time. The first and second plans are in 
 most general use ; the third is in operation in Waterloo. 
 
VI 
 DIFFICULTIES OF ADMINISTRATION 
 
 An analysis of the law, of its detailed administration in one 
 county, and of the variations in its administration in the state 
 make clear that the problem of administering poor relief in 
 Iowa has not been solved. Certain specific difficulties should be 
 mentioned. 
 
 The board of supervisors is an, elective body dependent upon 
 local political influence. Its most important function is the 
 making of the county levy for taxation and its apportionment. 
 The supervisors are bound to consider the expense of every de- 
 partment; at the same time certain expenditures are demanded 
 by their political obligations. As a result the board is between 
 two fires — one the keeping down of expenses; the other, the 
 spending of money to satisfy their constituents. 
 
 The overseer of the poor is usually a political appointee and 
 subject to some political pressure. If a large taxpayer asks aid 
 for a certain family, it is difficvdt, because of his political in- 
 fluence, to deny the request. On the other hand, the overseer 
 must be eeonomcal so as to make a showing when his reports 
 are submitted to the supervisors, and so that the question of 
 saving of expense or the weight of political influence may over- 
 balance his decisions relative to what is best for a family. 
 
 Belief is only one function of the township trustees and one 
 that has probably received the least attention, since dependence 
 in the purely rural districts is limited in amount. Township 
 trustees are more or less dependent politically upon the board of 
 supervisors, and their acts are shaped largely by what they 
 think will meet with the approval of the board. They must be 
 economical or run the risk of having their bills denied payment. 
 They are largely unacquainted with modern methods of dealing 
 with relief and are apt to be slow and cautious. 
 
 (84) 
 
THE IOWA PLAN 35 
 
 County officials in charge of relief are seldom trained charity 
 workers. Changes are frequent and often result in forcing an 
 official out of office just as he is becoming efficient. The new 
 man, in his turn, learns his lessons from day to day, the poor 
 often having to pay for his experience through his mistakes in 
 generosity or his niggardliness. The administrator of relief 
 funds is dealing not with inanimate objects but with the most 
 delicate thing in the world, personality. 
 
 Wise administration takes infinite patience. Always the 
 element of human nature enters into the solving of every 
 family problem, a most uncertain element, and yet the one that 
 makes the work so important and so difficult. Too much cannot 
 be demanded or expected of an official receiving many times only 
 a nominal salary — salaries of overseers range from ten to sixty 
 dollars a month, and sometimes less than one hundred dollars a 
 year is paid. In one county the salary is $1200.00,'^ and in 
 another $1500.00 ; in the latter case, however, part of the salary 
 is paid from private funds. 
 
 Many times without any investigation the applicant's story 
 is taken at its face value. In one county the overseer of the poor 
 received applications by telephone or letter, and forthwith sent 
 out what had been summarily "ordered" from him. One over- 
 seer, in speaking of an aged couple who owned a comfortable 
 home, and who had several strong and prosperous married chil- 
 dren, said : ' ' What could I do ? The old couple would not give 
 me a lien on the property, because they wanted it for their chil- 
 dren. The children refused to help their parents, so the county 
 had to do something." In another instance, a county aided the 
 families of three brothers, two of whom lived in the same house. 
 The three men were able-bodied, drank heavily, and left the 
 support of their families to their wives and to the county. Again 
 the county continued aid, notwithstanding the fact that 
 Iowa has a hospital for inebriates and a good non-support law. 
 Practically no effort is made to secure employment for those 
 out of work or to make a definite plan to help the families to 
 support themselves. One overseer remarked that the county 
 could not discriminate as carefully as private societies, because 
 the money was to help the poor, and when a poor man applied 
 
36 STUDIES IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES 
 
 to him, although the man was able to work, there was nothing 
 for the county to do but give assistance. 
 
 One of the diiSculties resulting from the present system of re- 
 lief is a duplication of function and of machinery. Especially 
 is this true of the widows' pensions and the poor fund proper, 
 as handled by the overseers of the poor and the township trus- 
 tees. The juvenile court, whose primary function is the care 
 of children, has had thrust upon it the administration of a 
 form of relief, widows' pensions. The overseer of the poor and 
 the township trustees were already caring for widows in need. 
 The law providing for widows' pensions has entailed a confus- 
 ion as to fields of labor, an overlapping of function with a result- 
 ing duplication and waste in repeated investigations and in the 
 time of officials. 
 
 The law does not provide adequately in widows' pension 
 cases for the investigation which is necessary to protect the 
 county from wasteful expenditure and to protect the widow 
 and her family from the disastrous results of relief given with- 
 out the requirement that the family should do all in its power 
 to become self-supporting. Illustrative of the need for investi- 
 gation is the story of a widow who used the pension money 
 not for her family but to pay for her husband's tombstone. 
 One judge told of the case of a woman that had been heard in his 
 court. As he was on the point of granting a pension, he decided 
 that the woman looked unusually well-dressed and he could not 
 understand why she was in such need. He called her back to 
 the stand, put her through a severe grilling, and as a result 
 learned that she owned a farm, hogs, cattle, horses, and chick- 
 ens. Of course the pension was not granted. 
 
 The law makes no provision for some one to visit in the homes, 
 after the pension is granted, to help plan the family budget; to 
 advise the mother relative to the purchasing of family supplies, 
 to see that the children are kept in school and in good physical 
 condition or directed into employment with a future; and keep 
 the court informed of the family needs and resources so that if 
 advisable the pension may be increased or discontinued. As now 
 administered the pension automatically ceases for each child as 
 the child reaches the age of sixteen. 
 
THE IOWA PLAN 37 
 
 In the case of widows' pensions the law gives the court the 
 right to grant the pension and specifies that the board of super- 
 visors must pay it. One county refused to pay the pensions 
 granted by the court and questioned the constitutionality of the 
 law, but finally it was forced by local public opinion to pay the 
 pensions granted. 
 
 To sum up the situation, the administration of relief is charac- 
 terized frequently by a lack of complete records, of trained 
 officials, of thorough investigation, and of follow-up work. The 
 results in the waste of public money, in the pauperization of 
 families, and the lack of constructive work to rehabilitate fam- 
 ilies now dependent, constitute a serious problem. The same 
 careful business methods of accounting, bookkeeping, and ad- 
 ministration should be exercised in giving relief or aid to the 
 needy poor as in the conduct of any business. It is all the more 
 important since the giving of relief so vitally affects the lives of 
 people. 
 
 In the last few years some of the citizens, especially business 
 men, have become aware of the inefSciency of much of the relief 
 work, but when a change of method is suggested, a serious and 
 practical difficulty presents itself: the smaller communities can- 
 not pay double for relief. In other words, they cannot pay taxes 
 levied by the county board of supervisors for public relief funds 
 and the salary of a public official, and at the same time pay, by 
 means of personal contributions, for a private relief fund and a 
 trained charity worker. The problem is being solved by a com- 
 bination of public and private agencies. This method is com- 
 monly referred to by Iowa social workers as "the Iowa Plan." 
 
VII 
 THE IOWA PLAN. 
 
 GEINNELL 
 
 In. the spring of 1912, citizens of Grinnell were much con- 
 cerned to find that the town was expending for poor relief what 
 seemed to be an amount out of proportion to the needs. Grinnell 
 is a college town of about 5000 population, not a town of for- 
 eigners, of factory people, or of apparent poverty. These citi- 
 zens discussed the situation with the county board of supervisors 
 with the result that the supervisors decided to employ a trained 
 social worker to make a local investigation. The writer, at that 
 time assistant secretary of the Des Moines Associated Charities, 
 was employed. 
 
 The spirit of the town was a desire to be of service, and every 
 aid was given to make the survey successful. There were, how- 
 ever, no records of the families which had been receiving aid. A 
 list of those receiving aid had been published in the newspapers 
 after the January meeting of the board of supervisors and again 
 after the April meeting. This was not a list of families, with 
 amount of aid given, but was a quota of bills allowed, each firm 
 in presenting its bill having itemized it in this fashion: "Gro- 
 ceries for Jones family, $12.40." The items from the two 
 printed lists for the different families were pasted on cards of 
 uniform size. This card catalogue gave the names of families 
 and the amount of relief each family had received in a period of 
 about six months. The card file was then taken to the overseer 
 of the poor, who gave information as to where the family lived 
 and whether it was then receiving aid. In, only a few instances 
 was the number of the house given. This omission caused the 
 loss of considerable time in locating the homes. The first plan 
 of the investigator was to have office hours for about two hours 
 a day, so that all families applying for aid might be referred to 
 
 (88) 
 
THE IOWA PLAN 39 
 
 her by the overseer. This method would have given opportu- 
 nity to secure family data and to get in touch with the family 
 in an unobtrusive way. As the overseer was not in favor of the 
 plan, visiting in the homes was begun at once. The investiga- 
 tor's coming had been heralded in the newspapers, everyone 
 knew the purpose of the investigation, and it was currently 
 predicted that the families would refuse to give information. 
 This proved to be a false prophecy. The families received the 
 investigator in good spirit, and only in a few places was there 
 any hesitancy in giving the data asked. 
 
 Seventy-two cases were listed. One of these had received the 
 amount credited to her, a dollar and a half, not as aid for her- 
 self, but in payment for work done for others. One case, not 
 included in the seventy-two was that of an old lady who had 
 given her home to the county in return for care during her life- 
 time. Ten of the cases were no longer living in Grinnell. Sixty- 
 one families, which had been recipients of county aid, were vis- 
 ited as was also the annuity case. In addition, employers, mer- 
 chants, physicians, relatives, and teachers were intervievi'ed. Not 
 only was a separate report of each family's condition given to 
 the supervisors, but a graphic chart showing conditions was also 
 prepared. 
 
 Specific recommendations were also made in writing. The 
 following extracts from the report will be of interest : 
 
 1. The need for thorough investigation is imperative. 
 
 8. The necessity is clear of watching the situation, in order to throw 
 the family on its own responsibiliy as soon as possible, and also in order 
 to be sure that the family is utilizing all aid given and all its own resources. 
 
 3. The need for cooperation with physicians, schools, health oflScer, and 
 relatives is apparent. 
 
 4. Cooperation on the part of the family in the plan made for its 
 welfare is requisite. 
 
 5. There is imperative need for an employment exchange, so that when 
 a man or woman applies saying he or she cannot get work, the overseer 
 can say in return, "Here is work for you to do, if you want it." 
 
 6. A permanent worker is needed to give his or her entire time to the 
 work. This need is the gi'eatest, and in reality it combines the other five. 
 
 On first thought this plan would seem impracticable in a town the size of 
 Grinnell, but I am convinced that it will more than prove its desirability. 
 Summing up the amounts voted at the January and April meetings of the 
 
40 STUDIES IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES 
 
 supervisors, we find that the amount for Grinnell was about $4000. For 
 the rest of the county it was less than $1100. Poweshiek Coimty has a 
 population of about 19,000, Grinnell has a little over one-fourth of this 
 number, yet the relief in GrinneU was almost four times that for the 
 rest of the county. 
 
 Relief ought to be given when and where it is needed and in sufficient 
 amount, but nothing is more disastrous than relief where it is not needed. 
 When people get to depending on others, and from a state of being willing 
 to let others care for them become unwilling to exert themselves, and then 
 demand relief as their right because they are poor and citizens, some 
 radical measure must be taken. I wish you could have gone with me into 
 some of the homes and heard some of the expressions. I want to quote 
 a few of them. 
 
 One woman said she sent all her orders to the overseer by mail. One 
 day when I was calling in a home the mother said to me ; "I sent an order 
 for some coal the other day, but it hasn't come." I asked her where she 
 ordered it, and she said from the overseer, and then she added she guessed 
 she would have to buy some herself tomorrow. One family said the county 
 did well by them. One man, as he sat in the doorway of his home, said 
 that he didn 't think it was much harm to get help if a man couldn 't get 
 work. He did not look very enthusiastic over the prospect of hunting for 
 work. One woman remarked naively that Grinnell was a good place to 
 live, people were so good to the poor. I was somewhat surprised when one 
 woman remarked she had not applied for the aid, and she declared she 
 did not know who had applied for her. She was rather a haughty young 
 woman and said she didn 't see why I asked her any questions. I asked her 
 if she didn't get more than one ton of coal and she said, yes. I then asked 
 her if she had not said something about it and she said, no. She finally 
 declared, however, that the coal saved her quite a little. She also said she 
 would not apply again as she could pay for her own coal, and she would 
 not have gotten it if she had known her name would be published. Another 
 woman told me it had been suggested to her that she should have her doe- 
 tor bill paid by the county, but she said she wouldn't after the names 
 appeared in the paper and she is now paying it herself. Repeatedly I have 
 heard : "So and So got aid, and ought not to have it, " or " So and So 
 got aid and didn't need it half as much as we did," or "Mrs. Brown got 
 such a lot of help and I could hardly get any." 
 
 Relief is the hardest thing in the world to give wisely. Material relief, 
 coal, groceries, clothing, is not the only kind needed. Sometimes friendly 
 advice or just a kind thought, a little encouragement or the helping to 
 get employment really helps more than relief orders. 
 
 For all these reasons it would seem advisable to have one worker giving 
 entire time to the work. To make it practical, this combination has been 
 suggested. Let the individual who is appointed overseer of the poor also 
 act as agent of the Grinnell Charity Organization Society. He or she could 
 also act as humane oflcer and as truant officer. The expense of such an 
 
THE IOWA PLAN 41 
 
 officer could be shared, aud it would then be a burden to no one, and would 
 repay a hundredfold in the kind of work done. 
 
 What would it mean if this were done? 
 
 1. Thorough investigation and accurate records of poor relief. 
 
 2. An actual saving in the amount of poor relief. 
 
 3. An employment exchange. 
 
 4. A central agency where tramps and beggars could be referred for 
 work and their stories might be investigated. 
 
 5. It would save administration expenses. 
 
 6. It would save repeated investigations by agents of different or- 
 ganizations. 
 
 7. It would mean the concentration of work so that if court action were 
 needed, it could be taken. 
 
 8. It would make possible a trained social worker, cognizant of all the 
 phases of the situation who could deal with any emergency; who could 
 work with schools, churches, and the health officer and who could advise 
 with individuals who vdshed to help families with private funds and keep 
 them from the county books. 
 
 9. It would help to save the respect and preserve the independence of 
 the families needing assistance. 
 
 I have outlined a number of practical and somewhat technical suggestions. 
 
 1. All orders should be given on regular blanks and signed by the 
 overseer. 
 
 2. Each bill presented should be itemized and should have clipped or 
 pinned to it, the separate orders given by the overseer of the poor. 
 
 3. No stores shovild honor any orders except those on the regular blanks. 
 
 4. The overseer of the poor should keep a record of each order given. 
 This may be done by means of carbon copies. 
 
 5. Each case applying for aid should be thoroughly investigated and 
 recommendation made according to conditions. 
 
 6. The overseer should keep a complete record of each family and send 
 changes of condition to the auditor of the county with whom a duplicate 
 record should be kept. 
 
 7. The overseer should report monthly to the board of supervisors. 
 
 8. Emergency orders should be given by the overseer, and should be 
 approved by the supervisors at the monthly meeting, at which time they 
 should pass upon the continuing of relief. 
 
 9. Physicians should have an order from the overseer to attend a pa- 
 tient or the bills should not be approved by the supervisors. 
 
 10. Orders of milk and eggs should be given only on a physician's 
 recommendation, and when the family can not provide them for itself. 
 
 11. All orders given by the overseer should be itemized with definite 
 amount for each article. 
 
 12. When bills are audited, the originals and carbons should correspond. 
 
42 STUDIES IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES 
 
 13. Notice should be promptly served on non-residents likely to become 
 comity charges. 
 
 14. Names of families receiving county aid shoiild not be published 
 again. The purpose for which they were published has been served. 
 
 15. Some kind of work-test is imperative. 
 
 16. Groceries should be given only once a week. 
 
 There are some other suggestions in connection with the work with the 
 families: in case of desertion or continued non-support, court action should 
 be taken; relatives visiting or staying in the home should pay for their 
 own care and should not expect the county to provide for them (this re- 
 fers to relatives other than the immediate family). If a desertion case has 
 been tried, and the man ordered to pay a definite sum towards the fam- 
 ily's support, the worker should see that this amount is paid. Children 
 should not be allowed to come to the overseer's office. 
 
 I can only add that, in order to put the relief work on a good business 
 basis, business methods should be used and some one should be secured who 
 would know how to conduct the work in a business-like way, and some one 
 who could devote the entire time to it. This means a salary for full time 
 and a decided increase over the present allowance for the work. An over- 
 seer devoting his or her entire time is the most imperative need and in 
 order to carry out the suggestions made, a competent, energetic, capable 
 person, sympathetic and kind, able to win the confidence of the poor and 
 well-to-do alike, would help to solve the problem." 
 
 After the report had been given at Montezuma, the county- 
 seat and had been accepted, the board of supervisors united with 
 the Charity Organization Society of Grinnell in the employment 
 of a trained worker for the next year, each body appropriating 
 $500.00 for such a worker, who should act as secretary of the 
 Charity Organization Society and overseer, and who should give 
 attention also to the county, although outside of Grinnell recom- 
 mendations only would be made to the township trustees and . 
 supervisors. The Charity Organization Society was later reorga- 
 nized under the name of the Social Service League, the board 
 of which was composed of nine members elected from contribu- 
 tors ,two elected by the Woman's Civic Union and the Ministe- 
 ial Union, and three members ex-officiis, the mayor, the super- 
 intendent of schools, and the resident supervisor. 
 
 The results of the first year's work were remarkable. During 
 1912, the county had expended in Grinnell approximately 
 $8,000.00. During 1913 this amount was cut down to about 
 $4,200.00. From the private funds there was spent an addi- 
 
THE IOWA PLAN 43 
 
 tional $600.00. In other words, a total of $4,800.00 was ex- 
 pended in 1913, a saving of about 40 per cent.'* 
 
 The Social Service League styles itself a "Bureau for Com- 
 munity Service." Funds are used as follows: 
 
 Comity Funds provide for all general expenses of relief 
 and administration. There are Special Needs which cannot 
 be met by county money. These are provided for through 
 private funds voluntarily contributed. These Special Needs 
 include : 
 
 1. Medical care for school children whose parents can- 
 not provide it: 
 
 2. Special hospital care for members of self-supporting 
 families M'here the income does not permit of extra ex- 
 pense for such attention : 
 
 3. Temporary loans to persons who need just a little 
 lift over a hard place. 
 
 The overseer of the poor is also truant officer and investigator 
 of all widows' pension cases. Clean-up day, play ground, Boy 
 Scouts, Camp Fire Girls, health work, home gardens, protection 
 and care of dependent, neglected and delinquent children, coop- 
 eration of all charitable agencies during the year, and a plan 
 for Christmas giving have been promoted. ^^ 
 
 At the end of the first year under the combination plan, the 
 supervisors were so well pleased with the results that they vol- 
 untarily assumed the entire expense of salary and adminis- 
 tration of the office.'' 
 
 The year 1914 saw the Social Service League occupying a yet 
 larger place as the center of social activity, and still further 
 reduction was made in expenditures: $3,902.09 from county, 
 $263.82 from private funds, a total of $4,165.97." Mr. I. H. 
 Saunders, chairman of the board of supervisors of Poweshiek 
 County made the following statement : 
 
 "Our worker has been able to render a large amount of assist- 
 ance to township trustees in outlying townships. We are very 
 much pleased with continued results and would not think of 
 going back to the old system of earing for our unfortunates, ' '" 
 
44 STUDIES IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES 
 
 OSKALOOSA 
 
 Oskaloosa adopted the same plan that Grinnell has instituted, 
 organizing a Social Service League, and employing a trained 
 worker as overseer and secretary, who began work March 5, 
 1914 jtfo Tj^g salary is paid jointly by the county and the 
 league. The secretary and overseer also serves as police matron, 
 truant officer charged with enforcement of the child labor law, 
 probation officer appointed by the court, investigator of all 
 widows' pension cases, and manager of the "Goodfellow" work 
 at Christmas time. An employment office is conducted by the 
 League and a plan making possible a visiting nurse has been 
 devised.'"^ 
 
 WATERLOO 
 
 Since 1905 public relief and private charity funds have passed 
 through the hands of the Waterloo Association of Charities and 
 Correction,* with the overseer of the poor acting as superintend- 
 ent. A statement of expenditures by the county for the years 
 1906 to 1914 inclusive shows that although the city had much 
 more than doubled its population during this period, the expense 
 to the county for these items had scarcely increased.^"^ On 
 January 25, 1915, the staff of field workers consisted of the 
 overseer, at a monthly salary of eighty-five dollars and three 
 nurses at seventy-five doUars a month. Of these salaries the 
 county paid at that time sixty-five dollars a month for the over- 
 seer, and seventy-five dollars for one nurse and the school board 
 paid forty doUars towards the salary of a nurse for work done 
 in the schools. There were no overhead charges as the city gave 
 an office in the city hall.f* 
 
 The following analysis of the work is given by Dr. G. Hardy 
 Clark, formerly of Waterloo, who was a very active member of 
 the board of directors. 
 
 The outline of our work given below will show the intimate 
 interweaving of the city, school, private and county interests in 
 the unsanitary and destructive social condition that make up our 
 
 •Now the Social Service League of Waterloo 
 tOffice now in the county court-house 
 
THE IOWA PLAN 
 
 45 
 
 city pathology, and will illustrate our conception of the necessity 
 of dealing with them all by a strong central agency. 
 
 The association operating as a Public Service Board investi- 
 gates and acts for the 
 
 CITY 
 
 SCHOOLS 
 
 {Sanitary environments 
 Overcrowded and insanitary homes 
 Neglected contagious diseases 
 Evidence to present to our morals commission 
 
 Inspection of schools 
 
 Inspection and management of school children in homes 
 
 Truancy (as yet we do but part of this work) 
 
 Defectives 
 
 Adenoid and other operations 
 
 PRIVATE 
 
 Holiday giving 
 
 Holiday giving by schools 
 
 Families given to church and other societies to care for 
 
 Families given clothing and household furniture 
 
 Infants' clothing furnished 
 
 School children furnished shoes, clothing, etc. 
 
 Bed Cross Funds 
 
 Store conducted 
 
 Money loaned 
 
 Work for idle men and women secured 
 
 COUNTY 
 
 'Authority to judge between public care and private charity 
 Prevent locating of undesirables 
 Regulating and nursing of tuberculosis cases 
 Confinements 
 Care of infants 
 
 Care of abandoned and neglected children 
 Pursuit of deserting husbands 
 Home nursing and surgical dressings 
 County expenditures for food, fuel and clothing^™ 
 
 The association is buying a piece of property and is conduct- 
 ing a "store." This is really a rummage store. Second hand 
 garments are sold to those able to pay a small sum or are given 
 to those unable to pay. The profit from the store is used to 
 liquidate the debt on the property. 
 
46 STUDIES IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES 
 
 One very interesting and unusual piece of work is the juven- 
 ile Morals' Commission, established by the association, a state- 
 ment of which follows. 
 
 The purpose and objects of the commission are: 
 
 (a) To investigate improper or evil practices of children, and the neg- 
 lect or mismanagement of children on the part of parents, guar- 
 dians or others having their care, custody or control. 
 
 (b) To obtain information relating to juvenile dependents and delin- 
 quents and neglected children, at Waterloo, Iowa, and in its im- 
 mediate vicinity. 
 
 (c) To institute and maintain measures of relief and correction in the 
 homes and environment of delinquent, dependent, ill-used or neg- 
 lected children. 
 
 (d) To procure and submit to the juvenile court evidence relating to 
 the cases of such children as may come within its jurisdiction. 
 
 (e) To perform such other acts as may, from time to time, be deemed 
 advisable by the commission for promoting the welfare of depend- 
 ent, neglected or friendless children. 
 
 The members of the commission, in carrying out the purpose and objects 
 of its organization, shall act under and by the authority of the juvenile 
 court of Black Hawk County, Iowa, so far as such authority may be 
 granted. 
 
 The officers of the commission shall be a chairman, and secretary, who 
 shall be elected by the members of the commission from their number, and 
 shall hold their respective offices until their successors are elected. 
 
 The association of Charities and Corrections of Waterloo, Iowa, in Oc- 
 tober, 1915, and annually thereafter, shall appoint the members of this 
 commission, and fill any vacancies which may occur in the membership of 
 such commission before the next annual meeting of the Association of 
 Charities and Corrections. 
 
 The Commission may adopt such rules and by-laws for its own govern- 
 ment, as may from time to time be considered appropriate to the accom- 
 plishments of the object of its creation.'" 
 
 November 1, 1915, a trained worker, a young woman resident 
 of Waterloo, was appointed overseer of the poor as weU as su- 
 perintendent of the association and the name of the organiza- 
 tion was changed to Social Welfare League of Waterloo. 
 
 Through the Social Welfare League there was presented to the 
 city council in December, 1917, the necessity for a plan to insure 
 the protection of givers of Waterloo. The city council was sym- 
 pathetic with the movement and the business men helped to 
 urge the adoption of a plan. As a result an ordinance was 
 passed prohibiting the soliciting of funds (in whole or in part) 
 
THE IOWA PLAN A1 
 
 for any "War Fund, War Aid Fund or any Charitable Purpose 
 whatsoever except upon authorization or approval of the Board 
 of Official Censors. This Board of Official Censors consists of 
 five persons who serve without compensation and who are ap- 
 pointed by the mayor with the approval of the city council. 
 This ordinance was passed on December 21, 1917. The first 
 board appointed will hold office until the first Monday in April, 
 1918, and each succeeding board will hold office for the succeed- 
 ing two years. Miss Ada M. Palmer, who is secretary of the So- 
 cial Welfare League, was elected chairman of the Board of 
 Official Censors. 
 
 The Board is working out definite forms to be used in presen- 
 tation of requests for approval in reporting the work of the 
 organization, asking for a certificate of approval and a plan for 
 making a survey and directory of all of the agencies in Water- 
 loo which solicit funds through private subscriptions. 
 
 OTTUMWA 
 
 Before a meeting of the business men of Ottumwa in June 
 1914, there was outlined the advantages of concerted action in 
 caring for the needy families.^"* Emphasis was placed upon 
 constructive family work, that is, upon the effort to enable 
 needy families to care for themselves. It was pointed out that 
 no arbitrary plan could be brought to the city, but that the 
 plan should be made to fit the peculiar local needs. It was voted 
 that a brief survey should be made to ascertain just what the 
 conditions were, what the needs were, and what plan could be 
 worked out to meet these needs. Upon the invitation of the 
 commercial club, the Bureau of Social Welfare of the Extension 
 Division of the State University undertook the task. The com- 
 mercial club appointed a committee with which the investigator 
 was in constant consultation, a desk was provided in the com- 
 mercial club office, and the business men gave every possible 
 help. Bach new development was reported to the commercial 
 club committee, and the plan gradually took definite shape as 
 the committee reviewed the data secured. Representatives of all 
 the different societies, lodges, and churches were interviewed, 
 and lists of the families they had assisted and the amounts of 
 
48 STUDIES IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES 
 
 money expended during the preceding year were obtained. 
 Hospitals, parks, schools, the mission, county home, county and 
 city jail, Young Men's Christian Association, and Young Wo- 
 men's Christian Association were visited. The judge of the dis- 
 trict court, the police judge, the county attorney, the county and 
 city physician, and other oiiScials were interviewed, were ques- 
 tioned as to local conditions, and their cooperation was enlisted 
 in a plan for constructive family work. 
 
 The investigator was invited to the meetings of the directorate 
 boards of both the commercial club and of the retail dealers' 
 association. It was shown what the organization of a central 
 agency to deal with the family needs would mean to Ottumwa. 
 It was argued that it was good business to make systematic, 
 adequate, and really helpful provision for the needs of the poor 
 of the city. "Key" people in the city were personally inter- 
 viewed and interested in the effort to work out a local plan. The 
 overseer of the poor was of great assistance in giving the names 
 of all families aided by the county, and much valuable data in 
 regard to their home conditions. A card catalogue was made 
 showing the number of families aided during the previous year, 
 and the total amounts expended by all the different local agen- 
 cies. Visits were made to a number of these families, the loca- 
 tion of whose homes covered a wide territory. The different 
 families were encouraged to tell their stories, not that it might 
 be determined whether the family should or should not have re- 
 lief, but that some knowledge of its personal attitude and living 
 conditions might be secured. 
 
 Near the close of the survey, a conference of the board of super- 
 visors, the commercial club committee and the investigator was 
 held in the office of the commercial club. The supervisors were 
 told that the business men of the city were desirous of organizing 
 a central agency to take care of all the relief work of the com- 
 mimity, that the work of caring for needy poor families had 
 been done in most haphazard fashion, that business men were be- 
 ing constantly solicited, and that practically no effort was being 
 made to encourage families to take eare of themselves. It was 
 explained that the commercial club committee hoped the work of 
 this new organization would so commend itself to the board of 
 supervisors that the secretary, a trained worker, would be ap- 
 
THE IOWA PLAN 49 
 
 pointed overseer of the poor. Through this plan it was believed 
 much money could be saved to the community, and that depend- 
 ent families would be encouraged to become independent and 
 self-supporting. The supervisors were not asked to declare 
 themselves in favor of the plan. It was pointed out that this 
 friendly consultation was simply to acquaint them with the plan 
 and its possibilities. 
 
 The ministerial association composed of ministers of the local 
 churches also had the plan presented to them. The ministerial 
 association, in fact, had initiated the movement. They had ap- 
 pointed a committee to present the need for organized charity to 
 the commercial club, and the commercial club had then appointed 
 its committee, including as a member, the chairman of the min- 
 isterial association committee. After the commercial club took 
 up the matter, the ministerial association had dropped into the 
 background, none the less interested, but feeling that the busi- 
 ness men were the proper persons to carry through the organiza- 
 tion. Prom September 12 to 15, 1914, a publicity campaign, was 
 conducted to explain the working of a central organization and 
 to show the need for a trained worker. Among the meetings ad- 
 dressed by the investigator was an open meeting of the Elks 
 Lodge. It is interesting to note that after the organization of the 
 Associated Charities, the Elks Lodge made a pledge of $200.00. 
 
 The campaign was concluded with a banquet at the commer- 
 cial club headquarters. At this meeting a full report of condi- 
 tions was given, and specific recommendations were made. The 
 report was adopted, and a directing board was elected, with 
 members not only from Ottumwa, but from nearby towns. The 
 name chosen was the Associated Charities of Wapello County, 
 and the budget decided upon was $5,000.00, part of which was 
 for an emergency relief fund, and the rest for the employment 
 of a trained social worker and other administrative expenses. 
 Besides the relief department, an employment exchange was 
 planned, together with a joint registration bureau, where all 
 agencies might register in a confidential file the names of the 
 families aided by them, and so prevent duplication and over- 
 lapping. Attention was to be given to the problem of neglected, 
 dependent, and delinquent children, and the office was to serve 
 
50 STUDIES IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES 
 
 as a center to which all families and individuals soliciting aid 
 might be sent, their needs provided for, and effort made to 
 establish self-maintenance. The new organization was designed 
 also as a central place to which homeless men might be referred, 
 through which they might secure work to pay for their lodging 
 and meals if they were able-bodied, and through which, if they 
 were ill, they might be taken care of and given medical aid until 
 their family or place of residence could be learned. 
 
 Ottumwa, a city of 22,000 people, had expended in one year 
 no less than $25,000 for its needy poor, and a conservative es- 
 timate based upon the returns from the different societies, placed 
 the number of families aided, either continuously or intermit- 
 tently, as 300 or in the neighborhood of 1,500 individuals. The 
 city had given 1,449 lodgings to transient men at the city jail 
 without further provision for them. It was also shown that 
 some of the dwelling houses were in a deplorable condition, and 
 that home conditions were in many instances pitiable. Desertion 
 and non-support were allowed to go unpunished. Physical 
 needs were not properly investigated nor was insistence placed 
 upon the physical examination and adherence to the recom- 
 mended plan for restoration to health. 
 
 The report of the survey submitted to the commercial club 
 included the following statements: 
 
 A study of the data secured relative to family conditions leads to some 
 very definite conclusions which were substantiated by the experience of 
 Ottumwa charity workers. 
 
 1. There has been considerable duplication. 
 
 2. Investigations have too often been superficial. The family's story 
 has been taken at face value. Little effort has been made to get at 
 the root cause of the family's condition. 
 
 3. As a result, relief has been too easily obtained. 
 
 4. There has been no systematic keeping of records. It is difficult to 
 get definite information about the families. Sometimes only the name 
 was learned. The overseer of the poor has a complete list of all 
 families assisted and some data. Each society, of course, keeps an 
 
 account of the expenditures. Few have gone farther than that. 
 
 5. Very little follow-up work has been done. Too often effort has 
 ceased with the supplying of clothing, groceries, or coal. The possi- 
 bility of making the family self-supporting and an active factor in 
 the economic well-being of the city has been too often ignored. 
 
 6. The women seem to have been the ones to make the applications for 
 relief, aad children have been permitted to come asking for supplies. 
 
THE IOWA PLAN 51 
 
 This is a very serious condition. Children learn all too soon the les- 
 sons of poverty, and they easily develop into first-class beggars. On 
 the other hand, if a man is able-bodied and not working, he should 
 be the one to ask for assistance. The responsibility of the family 
 is his, and he should be forced to assume it. 
 
 In addition to the recommendations for the creation of an 
 Associated Charities with trained workers, recommendations 
 were made for an educational campaign as to the prevention of 
 tuberculosis, sanitary precautions, and care of tuberculosis 
 patients. 
 
 The report gave the following summary: 
 
 The problem of Ottumwa is to reduce the number of families who are 
 recipients of aid, to build up independent family life and to coordinate 
 the charitable effort of the city. The spirit of the different agencies is 
 expressed in their sincere desire to be of help to those in distress. The 
 difficulty has been that too little attention has been given to the enforcing 
 of family responsibility. Too little has been demanded of the family. Too 
 little effort has been made to remove the fundamental causes of distress. 
 Too little consideration has been given to the effect upon the family of 
 the generous gifts bestowed. The easiest way for the giver is to give 
 without question and for the recipient to take what is offered. Home 
 conditions, personal characteristics, resources and possibilities must be 
 studied in order to reach an intelligent conclusion as to cause, needs and 
 remedy. If the money that is now being used for relief purposes could 
 be used for the employment of trained service to dispense what is really 
 needed, there is no question but that there would be a big saving in actual 
 dollars. 
 
 One distinct service an Associated Charities would render would be the 
 uncovering to the public of local social conditions that are productive of 
 sickness and poverty. The daily visits to the homes of the poor, and in- 
 timate acquaintance with their stories and their problems, a first hand 
 knowledge of their needs, would give a splendid basis for community ac- 
 tion.'" 
 
 The Associated Charities of Wapello County was organized 
 September 15, 1914. As a proof of the hold the movement had 
 taken on the community, over $4,000.00 of the $5,000.00 budget 
 was pledged before the office was opened. Soon after the new 
 secretary took o£Sce,.two of the district court judges issued an 
 order making the secretary, official investigator of all widows' 
 pension cases. March 1, 1915, the secretary was appointed 
 overseer of the poor by the county board of supervisors. In Oe- 
 
52 STUDIES IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES 
 
 tober, 1915, the county agreed to pay one-half of the secretary's 
 salary as overseer of the poor, and to pay one-half of overhead 
 expenses to the amount of twenty-five dollars a month. This 
 centralization brought private relief, county relief, and the in- 
 vestigation of widows* pensions under the central board. In 
 addition, the Associated Charities of Wapello County acts as 
 the clearing house for the entire community, has put into oper- 
 ation a joint registration bureau, looks after the welfare of the 
 dependent, neglected and even delinquent children, has cooper- 
 ated with the civic forces in "clean-up" and anti-tuberculosis 
 campaigns, and is leading in an effort to improve home condi- 
 tions. It has organized a house-keeping club, and is teaching 
 food values, preparation of foods, and the purchasing of food. 
 The following statement gives specific results of the first year's 
 activity. 
 
 Figures can never measure all the results of a social service whose first 
 object is human welfare. A "dollar and cents" interpretation is possible 
 in a few instances: eight aged persons provided for and removed from 
 the county books, saving $630.00 per year; seven families provided for, 
 preventing future dependents, saving approximately $1800.00 per year; six 
 families returned to self-support, saving $640.00 a year; three families 
 made partially self-supporting, saving $250.00 per year. 
 
 On the grounds of sufficient income and the ability of relatives legally 
 liable for support, the court has dismissed ten pensions and reduced 
 three, saving $1,742 per year or a total of $12,429 until each child reached 
 fourteen years of age;* six applications the court "denied on merit" 
 saving $900 a year; seven applications discouraged and helped in return- 
 ing to self-support, saving $1000 per year; fifty-two pensions current Jan- 
 uary 1, 1915; total $178.25 a week; thirty-four pensions current October 
 1, 1916 ; total $115.75 per week. 
 
 With the cooperation of the city administration and the police depart- 
 ment, the number of blind and crippled beggars who ply their trade 
 on crowded street corners, has been reduced. Investigation showed one 
 worth $6,000.00; another receiving regular relief from home county.t 
 
 To protect the housewife and business man, we urge refusal of aid, ex- 
 cept in exchange for work and the sending of persons to the office where 
 we give work at the rate of fifteen cents an hour for a fifteen to thirty 
 cent meal. Three hundred and thirty-seven men have come and have 
 worked for 404 meals at a cost of $68.00. Sick men were helped without 
 work. We are now working on a plan of cooperation enforcing the new 
 
 •Before the law changed the age limit to sixteen years. 
 
 tin 1917 the legislature passed a law giving cities and towns power by 
 ordinance to suppress, restrain, and prohibit begging In and on the streets 
 and other public places and to provide punishment for the violation of luch 
 ordinance. 
 
THE IOWA PLAN 53 
 
 vagrancy ordinance, requiring every able-bodied man to work for meals 
 and lodging. 
 
 Ten families have been "passed on" to Wapello County. This prac- 
 tice is inhuman. We refuse transportation except after we receive word 
 from reliable persons at the destination assuring care, then we provide 
 a ticket clear through. 
 
 The whole field of juvenile work has been touched only by the board of 
 education. Children needing the protection of the juvenile court and par- 
 ents needing its discipline, are being referred to us. We are doing the 
 ivork of a court oficer in gathering evidence, filing petitions and in many 
 instances serving summons and subpoenas. 
 
 The board of supervisors, township trustees, district court and private 
 citizens in the county, refer for investigation and conference conditions in 
 any part of the county. We are working on a plan for a county-wide study 
 of health and living conditions, and have organized friendly visiting in 
 some of the villages. 
 
 In our "Combination Program" county funds provide for general re- 
 lief and charity funds for personal social service and special needs which 
 cannot be met by the public money."' 
 
 BURLINGTON 
 
 In Burlington the local charity organization passed out of ex- 
 istence in September, 1914, but during the winter months the 
 city was forced to recognize its loss and set about securing cen- 
 tral organization. The commercial exchange took the initiative. 
 All of the other social agencies were interested. A survey 
 was made under the auspices of the Bureau of Social 
 Welfare of the State University, the data for which were 
 gathered largely by local volunteer workers.^"' As a re- 
 sult the Social Service League was formed with represen- 
 tatives from all federated societies. All the organizations 
 agreed to discontinue relief and to turn all applications 
 over to the Social Service League. The Burlington Relief So- 
 ciety and the Visiting Nurse Association disbanded and were 
 merged in the League; a central registration bureau, with con- 
 fidential file , was established, and in the one oflSce are housed 
 the general secretary, who is also truant officer, the visiting 
 nurse, the school nurse and the county relief agent, or overseer 
 of the poor. In Burlington the county relief is not handled 
 by the secretary of the Social Service League, so that Burling- 
 ton does not represent as complete a combination plan as Wa- 
 
54 STUDIES IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES 
 
 terloo or Grinnell, but it illustrates a high degree of cooperation 
 on the part of various private charities, which it is hoped may 
 lead eventually to a definite combination plan. 
 
 FORT DODGE 
 
 In January, 1915, the combination plan was made effective in 
 Fort Dodge through the appointment of the secretary of the As- 
 sociated Charities as overseer of the poor. From January to 
 October, 1915, twelve families, who during the preceding year 
 received a total of $1,646.20, because of different arrangements 
 now received only $429.64. As these arrangements were practi 
 cally forced by the trained social worker, a saving of $1,218.56 
 was made here. Investigations have been made in surrounding 
 towns for some of the supervisors; trustees have sent some of 
 their charges to the secretary for various services.^"' The sec- 
 retary is also truant officer. 
 
 CEDAE RAPIDS 
 
 The combination plan was adopted in Cedar Rapids after a 
 survey made by the Bureau of Social Welfare of the Extension 
 Division of the University in February, 1916. From September, 
 1915, to February, 1916, a period of five months, 595 families 
 had been given aid, and not less than $30,000.00 had been ex- 
 pended by all agencies, public and private, for the relief 
 of families in their homes. The county board of supervisors, 
 the commercial club and the Sunshine mission, the largest pri- 
 vate relief-giving agency, were responsible for the survey, and 
 interested in a plan for federating all the poor relief activity 
 of Cedar Rapids. The report of the survey included the follow- 
 ing statements and recommendations: 
 
 The problem in Cedar Rapids is to coordinate the poor relief of the 
 city, and to reduce the number of families who are recipients of aid, by 
 restoring as many as possible to self -support. 
 
 In every city there are many men and women who wish to do what they 
 can to assist those who are unfortunate. They wish to be truly helpful, 
 but the difficulty is that they do not always know what to do or how aid 
 should be given. This volunteer service is one of the splendid resources 
 of Cedar Bapids which has scarcely been touched. 
 
THE IOWA PLAN 55 
 
 On the basis of conditions found the Bureau of Social Welfare would 
 respectfully recommend: (1) the creation of a central agency to be called 
 the Social Welfare Board or Social Service League, under the direction of 
 a board of business men and women representative of the various interests in 
 Cedar Rapids; (2) the employment of a trained charity worker as secre- 
 tary of this central agency with sufficient helpers to make the plan effect- 
 ive; (3) the employment of a visiting nurse for the education and care 
 of the sick in their homes; (4) the installation of a complete and up-to-date 
 filing system for case records; (5) the establishment of a confidential ex- 
 change in which may be registered confidentially the names of all families 
 and individuals receiving aid from societies, churches, public ofH.cials, or 
 individuals; (6) the turning over of its charity work among families by 
 the Sunshine mission to the central office; (7) the development of a cen- 
 tral employment agency at the Simshine mission; (8) the addition to the 
 elected board of the central agency of the county board of supervisors as 
 members ex-officio and the handling of the county relief work through the 
 central office; (9) the adoption by business men of a policy of making the 
 registration at the central office of all cases, a condition of endorsement 
 of any society and of referring all those applying for aid to the central 
 office."" 
 
 A committee was appointed to investigate the details of the 
 plan and to report at another meeting to be held a week later. 
 This committee after conferring with the board of supervisors 
 and the commercial club, recommended in detail the combination 
 plan suggested in the original report. Their recommendation 
 was accepted and the board of directors of the Social Welfare 
 League elected. This board then organized, chose its officers, 
 and employed a trained worker who is now carrying on the 
 work of the League and acting as overseer of the poor. 
 
 The combination plan went into effect August 1, 1916. From 
 August 1, 1916 to August 1, 1917, the amount of poor relief 
 expended from county funds was reduced from 60 to 70 per 
 cent, and the supervisors who had been paying $65.00 a month 
 on the $100.00 salary of the worker, assumed the entire salary 
 and raised it to $125.00 a month.'" 
 
 The combination plan is thus seen to be in force in six Iowa 
 cities : Grinnell, Oskaloosa, Waterloo, Ottumwa, Port Dodge, and 
 Cedar Rapids. This plan prevents a waste and insures effi- 
 ciency. It means that to a degree seldom before attained, each 
 doUar wiU be placed where it will do the most good. While it 
 
56 STUDIES IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES 
 
 is true that the first year the plan was in operation in Grinnell, 
 forty per cent of the previous year's expenditure was saved, 
 and better results were obtained, a record of a small amount of 
 money expended for relief does not necessarily spell efficiency 
 of administration. The refusal of aid because there is an able- 
 bodied man in the family, or because it is thought that the fam- 
 ily had been aided once and should be able to manage, is not 
 sufficient. Inquiry should be made to learn why the application 
 is made, in order to aid the family intelligently. Aid should be 
 adequate to insure normal living. If through inadequate aid 
 families must live below the normal standard, the almost inevi- 
 table result is a breaking down of health, of family life, and of 
 moral standards; the family may be forced to beg and may 
 eventually drift into chronic pauperism. A large number of 
 families continually soliciting alms and making little or no 
 effort to take care of themselves is a big drain upon any city's 
 resources, and involves a condition which should be prevented. 
 A plan of treatment that provides for actual needs, but which 
 also includes an effort to learn the cause and to remove it, is to 
 be advocated. It is to the interest of every citizen, of the com- 
 munity that destitution and distress should be relieved and that 
 an effort be made to help needy fellow-citizens to become self- 
 supporting and productive factors in community life. Some 
 people need relief at certain times who object to receiving 
 aid from the county. For the care of these people private relief 
 funds should always be provided. It has been proved that pri- 
 vate relief agencies and county officials can adopt a definite plan 
 of cooperation on an economical as well as a highly efficient 
 
 The "Iowa Plan" of combining all social forces under a cen- 
 tral board of citizens, with the county officials members ex-of- 
 ficiis, can be adjusted to meet the needs of any locality, whether 
 city, town, or rural district, through intelligent cooperation, of 
 public and private agencies. The entire plan need not be 
 adopted at once, but may be inaugurated as a privately sup- 
 ported society eventually assuming the duties of public officials, 
 as was done at Ottumwa. The plan insures protection of de- 
 pendent and delinquent children, makes possible the rehabili- 
 
THE IOWA PLAN 57 
 
 tation of dependent families, and protects the tax-payers 
 through its efficient conserving of funds. 
 
 The great service, however, which the "combination scheme" 
 renders to Iowa towns is constructive work with the families. 
 This is the reason for combining in the person, of the trained 
 charity worker the offices of overseer of the poor and the sec- 
 retary of the social service league, public welfare association, or 
 associated charities. It gives to the worker an official position, 
 which makes possible the harmonizing of the many divergent 
 interests of the community, opens the way for investigation of 
 widows' pension cases, retains the advantage of having a fund 
 raised by private contributions for use of those special emer- 
 gency eases which it is not desired to make county charges, and 
 creates a board of private citizens, serving without pay and 
 directing the policy of social work in the community, and in 
 large measure removing it from any political domination. 
 
 It must be kept in mind that the members of the county board 
 of supervisors are members ex-officiis of this board, and that the 
 scheme is cooperative. County and private funds are kept sep- 
 arate, as are the records of families aided by each. The secre- 
 tary, as overseer of the poor, is directly responsible to the 
 board of supervisors for the expenditure of county funds, and 
 regularly submits a formal report to them in addition to the re- 
 port submitted to the entire board for the conduct of all of the 
 activities of the office. 
 
VIII 
 A STATE PROGRAM 
 
 This analysis of the administrative machinery for the relief 
 of the poor in Iowa has shown the definite provisions made by 
 legislation; has outlined the application of the law in Polk 
 County; has summed up the cost of charity to the state and 
 pointed out the variations and difficulties of administration. To 
 meet these problems, a number of cities have adopted a combina- 
 tion of public and private relief in the hands of a trained exec- 
 utive, which, while it has been successful to an unusual degree, 
 has certain dangers which should be recognized. 
 
 (1) Such a system has within it the possibility of becoming 
 autocratic. The very fact of its strength in dominating the sit- 
 uation and in controlling both public and private relief may re- 
 sult in the assumption of a dictatorial policy. 
 
 (2) For the same reason, and corollary to the above, the 
 work may become mechanical. 
 
 (3) The saving of money may become the leading item in the 
 administrative policy regardless of results. 
 
 (4) Because of the fact that the worker has enlarged pow- 
 ers and that there is little check through other competing or 
 cooperative charitable agencies, workers may assume too much 
 responsibility and so fail to keep either the board of supervis- 
 ors or the board of the Social Welfare League generally in- 
 formed. This tends to lessen the sense of responsibility on the 
 part of the boards with a resultant slackening of interest and 
 spontaneous support. 
 
 (5) The success of the combination plan depends largely 
 upon the personality of the worker and the right person is not 
 always easy to secure. This is true, of course, in, all lines of 
 social work, but especially so here because of the need for nice 
 adjustments and the avoidance of misunderstandings. On the 
 
 (B8) 
 
THE IOWA PLAN 59 
 
 other hand, the field is one of promise and makes a strong ap- 
 peal to young women eager to develop a social situation, untram- 
 meled by precedents or hard and fast lines of conventional ad- 
 ministration. 
 
 While these dangers exist, they are more than eouaterbalanced 
 by the actual advantages accruing as a result of the plan from 
 the purely administrative side. 
 
 (1) Instead of untrained administrators, the combination 
 plan makes possible the employment of trained charity workers. 
 
 (2) It results in the installation of modern business methods 
 of keeping records. 
 
 (3) It brings into operation more adequate investigations 
 which are meant to show not only whether the need really ex- 
 ists, but also the cause for the need. Then forces may be set at 
 work to remove the cause and to rehabilitate the needy. 
 
 (4) It has been shown how the coordination of all the social 
 activity of the community was effected under the combination 
 plan. For example, in Grinnell, the Social Service League has 
 had many demands made upon it for various kinds of commun- 
 ity service — garden club contests, clean-up day campaigns, a 
 peace pageant, the promotion of playground supervision and 
 campaigns. In addition to her regular work as secretary of the 
 Social Service League and overseer of the poor, the trained 
 worker at Grinnell is school attendance ofScer, volunteer proba- 
 tion officer, and investigator of widows' pension cases. 
 
 (5) The fact that relief administration is centralized and 
 that the workers in this central office have at their finger's ends 
 the social conditions of the community gives a scientific basis 
 for the initiation of other needed social movements. In Ottum- 
 wa a dental clinic has been opened and an anti-tuberculosis cam- 
 paign inaugurated. Oskaloosa and Cedar Eapids have been suc- 
 cessful in securing a visiting nurse. 
 
 (6) Another specific result is a better carrying out of the law 
 through intelligent cooperation of the various agents of the law. 
 Two examples may be cited : (a) The law providing for widows' 
 pensions does not prescribe any definite accounting of the money 
 received. In several of the towns where the combination plan 
 is in operation, widows receiving pensions are required to keep 
 accurate account of all money received and expended. This 
 
60 STUDIES IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES 
 
 gives the social worker an opportunity to advise about expendi- 
 tures and to keep a cheek on the need for the pension, (b) The 
 law providing for pensions for the blind does not prescribe any 
 investigation of the applicant's needs so that aid can be ad- 
 justed to meet them. The clerk receives the necessary affidavits, 
 including the physician's report and the statement of applicant 
 and witnesses and transmits the same to the board of supervis- 
 ors. In Ottumwa, in February, 1916, the board of supervisors, 
 county attorney, and overseer of the poor had a conference to 
 consider the administration of the law. Decisions reached were 
 "that the supervisors were empowered to use their discretion in 
 granting a pension," exploding the idea that a person would be 
 "entitled" to it because he met the requirements of the law. 
 They refer all applications to the overseer for investigation and 
 report, and any pension granted by them will be handled 
 through the poor relief department by the overseer, requiring 
 the same keeping of account as is required for all cash orders 
 issued. They will refer to the regular relief department, per- 
 sons who are not able to handle their own business and will re- 
 fuse the pension, which if granted, must be one hundred and 
 fifty dollars a year unless the person is capable of working. 
 This point was emphasized by the supervisors who had already 
 been approached by unscrupulous persons asking the privilege 
 of handling the money for the prospective pensioners.^^^ 
 
 (7) The combination plan has resulted in extending the doc- 
 trine of efficient charity over the county. Secretaries are fre- 
 quently asked to make investigations for the township trustees, 
 and the secretary of Ottumwa has organized volunteer groups 
 in the small towns of the county to carry on as best they can, 
 constructive work among the needy poor families. 
 
 (8) This plan is demonstrating that public relief can be 
 efficiently handled and can be made elastic enough to cover the 
 unusual cases and to adjust the relief to the individual needs. 
 
 (9) It has tended to discard the words ' ' pauper" and ' ' char- 
 ity" and to substitute the idea of community service, social ser- 
 vice, or social welfare. 
 
 (10) Perhaps one of the greatest gains which has been made 
 under this plan is that the juvenile court and truancy work may 
 be handled by a trained worker. This means a great deal, espe- 
 
THE IOWA PLAN 61 
 
 cially to the small town which does not come within the scope of 
 the law providing for regularly paid probation officers. 
 
 Eepeatedly the question is asked what steps are necessary for 
 the introduction of the combination plan. The community, as 
 a whole, must be aroused to the need for adequate provision 
 for the care of the needy poor, and the movement should be pro- 
 moted not by a single group but by all the different groups en- 
 gaged in social service activity. 
 
 In any event the interest of the board of supervisors and of 
 the business men must be enlisted. The county fund is ordi- 
 narily the largest relief fund, and business men supply the funds 
 for private charity, so that these two forces are the points of 
 greatest strategic importance. Business men are personally in- 
 terested because the town is their home and therefore they have 
 the city's well-being at heart. They realize that from a purely 
 commercial view-point good social conditions are an advertising 
 asset, and that in the end the community, especially the business 
 men, pays the bills for bad housing, for epidemics growing out 
 of improper sanitation., for neglect of moral protection of boys 
 and girls, men and women, and for a large dependent population. 
 
 In order to arouse public sentiment and to secure data show- 
 ing need for combination, a local study should be made, or in 
 other words a social survey of the town should be undertaken. 
 No social program can be worked out theoretically, and arbitrar- 
 ily, and then be superimposed upon a waiting people. Such a 
 course would be completely ineffective and would result only in 
 failure. A program should be flexible, so as to meet new condi- 
 tions as they arise. Furthermore, it should not be so complex 
 that citizens are confused and discouraged. It should acquaint 
 the people with the larger possibilities of social activity, and 
 should indicate the relation of the immediate social effort to 
 future development. The survey brings vividly to the minds of 
 people their own home city, its needs and it resources, and helps 
 to organize them into an effective whole. 
 
 The combination plan as proposed, should make use of re- 
 sources already organized and combine related social activities. 
 Some cities have paid probation officers, and in these commimi- 
 ties no attempt should be made to combine juvenile court work 
 
62 STUDIES IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES 
 
 and that of the poor relief. However, the overseer should work 
 in close cooperation with the probation officers. 
 
 Dr. G. Hardy Clark, formerly of Waterloo, suggested that a 
 law be passed giving the board of supervisors authority to ap- 
 point a county social welfare board of twelve members to serve 
 six years without pay. An outline of his proposal follows: 
 
 1. This board (a) to be appointed by the county board of supervisors; 
 (b) to consist of twelve members; (c) to be selected to represent 
 the cities, towns and country districts in proportion to population; 
 (d) its members to serve not less than six years. 
 
 2. The board to employ (a) county overseer of the poor who will act 
 as secretary and executive officer of the board; (b) nurses for county 
 institutions, public schools, city, town and county inspection, and for 
 the general purposes of visiting nurses. 
 
 3. The board to employ medical attendants for the poor farm, deten- 
 tion hospital, tuberculosis hospital, jail, and other purposes. 
 
 4. The board to expend or distribute all funds and supplies contributed 
 by the public for relief work in the cities, towns, and rural districts. 
 
 5. The board to supervise and control the care and disposition of all de- 
 serted, orphaned and illegitimate children born or resident in the 
 county. 
 
 6. The board to maintain a juvenile morals committee under and by the 
 authority of the juvenile court. 
 
 7. The supervisors to make provision for needed expenditures of the 
 board including transportation and committee work. 
 
 8. The board to file annually with some central agency (state) a state- 
 ment of its expenditures and of the moral, sanitary and provident 
 conditions of the inhabitants of the county, together with recom- 
 mendations looking to improvement of these conditions.™ 
 
 Professor John L. Gillin has also advocated a county board of 
 charities for Iowa to improve the administration of out-door 
 relief, in. a manner similar to the plan of Indiana, which includes 
 a county board for this purpose, the members serving without 
 pay ; which fixes responsibility upon the overseer of the poor of 
 the township to levy a tax in the township for the amoimt ex- 
 pended for outdoor relief for the preceding year; and which 
 makes mandatory the filing of reports by the overseer of the 
 poor every three months, one copy with the county supervisors, 
 one with the state board of charities, and one with the county 
 board of charities. Professor Gillin recommends that the Iowa 
 State Board of Control prescribe rules for the overseers of the 
 poor, and that the county board of charities should be author- 
 
THE IOWA PLAN 63 
 
 ized to appoint aa overseer of the poor, if the supervisors do not 
 appoint one after the supervisors have discharged the overseer 
 in authority. Professor Gillin states that in his opinion the 
 "center of difficulties" is the overseer of the poor.^^* 
 
 The legislature of Indiana codified the poor laws in 1901. 
 Indiana is proud of her plan for out-door relief. ' ' The poor re- 
 lief laws as now in force proved the means of checking the ac- 
 counts of the overseers of the poor. They also supply what is 
 of greater importance, an opportunity of studying the state's 
 problem of poverty as well as the method of giving relief in 
 such a way as least to encourage dependence." The operation 
 of this law has reduced the expenditure of county poor relief 
 from $560,012 in 1891 to $279,967 in 1909."^ 
 
 In the state of Massachusetts the pauper department of each 
 town or city is required to make an annual report to the State 
 Board of Charities. This includes a report for every family 
 aided. The law also prescribes that the master of every alms- 
 house must keep a register of all persons received and file with 
 the State Board of Charities a complete record. 
 
 In Ohio effort has been made to secure the passage of a law 
 providing for boards of public welfare. The promoters of the 
 law were unable to secure its consideration by the legislature of 
 1917 because of early adjournment.^^* 
 
 The state of North Carolina passed an act establishing a State 
 Board of Charities and Corrections at the regular session of the 
 General Assembly in 1915. This act provided for local com- 
 mittees, which are to be composed of three persons, one of 
 whom must be a member of the local board of health and one a 
 woman. Their duties include visitation, inspection and report 
 on jails and alms-houses in their respective counties or cities, and 
 advice and help to local charities in maintaining such institu- 
 tions in the most efficient manner. The law" also required that 
 the state board shall coUeet, compile, and publish statistics re- 
 garding dependent and delinquent persons both in and out of 
 institutions within the state."' 
 
 The legislature of Minnesota passed a law during the assembly 
 of 1916-17 providing for County Child Welfare Boards. The 
 State Board of Control upon request may appoint three persons 
 in each county, at least two of whom shall be women. These 
 
64 STUDIES IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES 
 
 persons shall serve without compensation and, together with a 
 member of the county board and the county superintendent of 
 schools, shall constitute the Child "Welfare Board of the county. 
 In counties where no Child "Welfare Board exists, the judge of 
 the juvenile court may appoint a local agent to cooperate with 
 the State Board of Control."' 
 
 In Missouri a bill was introduced in the legislature in 1917, 
 providing for the creation of county boards of public welfare. 
 The members of these boards, who were to serve without pay, 
 were to be the three judges of the county court (who are the 
 county administrative officers), the county supervisor of schools, 
 and the county judges hearing children's cases. The board was 
 to appoint the county superintendent of public welfare and as- 
 sistants. Only those holding certificates as "qualified social 
 workers" would be eligible. Certificates were to be granted by 
 the State Board of Charities after competitive examination. 
 The State Board of Charities was to be given supervisory power 
 to make the plan adaptable to small towns or cities in the county 
 in the following manner. The law provided that towns and 
 cities might be represented on the county board of public wel- 
 fare and might contribute funds to its work. This city-county 
 board as proposed is similar to the plan in St. Joseph. The coun- 
 ty board of public welfare would have charge of probation ser- 
 vice, would administer mothers' pensions, would supervise pri- 
 vate agencies caring for children and would institute modern 
 methods in charity work. The law failed to pass.^^* 
 
 Kansas City, Missouri, has had a board of public welfare 
 since 1909. The method of handling charities is somewhat un- 
 usual. The private relief society is called the Provident Asso- 
 ciation. According to the report of 1912, the Provident Asso- 
 ciation made all investigations of applicants for relief. By 
 virtue of this service rendered for the board of public welfare, 
 the city paid the salary of ten social workers who were under 
 the direction of the superintendent of the association. This 
 agreement went into force July 1, 1910. Besides the ten workers 
 paid by the city, the Provident Association paid the salaries of 
 three other workers. The cost of relief, street-car fares, super- 
 vision, and all other expenses was met by the Provident Asso- 
 ciation. The Kansas City board of public welfare also con- 
 
THE IOWA PLAN 65 
 
 ducted a research bureau, managed vacant lot gardening, pro- 
 vided for the homeless and unemployed, conducted a welfare 
 loan agency and legal aid bureau, provided for recreation, 
 looked after paroled men and women, and conducted a woman's 
 reformatory and a municipal farm.^*" 
 
 For St. Joseph, Missouri, "the entire work of the city is 
 handled by a social welfare board created by law ia 1913. The 
 purposes of the law were to centralize all charitable work car- 
 ried on by public funds in one board and to reduce and pre- 
 vent poverty by constructive methods as opposed to the former 
 temporary relief system. ' ' The welfare board expends all money 
 appropriated from public sources for charitable work. It cares 
 for all the poor in the city of St. Joseph with the exception of 
 persons sufEering from infectious, contagious, or communicable 
 diseases. The board consists of eight members, the presiding 
 judge of the county court, the mayor, and six appointed mem- 
 bers. These members are appointed yearly to serve for a term 
 of three years. Each year two members are appointed, one by 
 the county court and one by the mayor. All members of the 
 board serve without pay. In addition to the care of the poor 
 of the city the following departments of work are included: 
 legal aid, employment bureau, wood yard, municipal farms, re- 
 search bureau, volunteer service department, recreation depart- 
 ment maintaining playgrounds, burial department, home medi- 
 cal service, dispensary, obstetric and visiting nurse, and hospital 
 service.^*^ 
 
 New York does not have county welfare boards, but the law 
 provides that widows' pensions shall be administered by a 
 board of child welfare. The board of child welfare makes inves- 
 tigations and recommends to the board of supervisors that a 
 certain appropriation be given them to care for widowed moth- 
 ers. A variation of administration is to be found in "Westches- 
 ter county, where Mr. V. Everett Macy, as superintendent of the 
 poor, has revolutionized the administration of his office. Among 
 other things, because of the work of his agents in investigating 
 cases of children for whose admission to children's homes ap- 
 plications had been made, he discovered the need for keeping 
 children in their own home, and in order to carry out this pol- 
 icy secured from the board of supervisors an appropriation of 
 
66 STUDIES IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES 
 
 $6,000. When the board of child welfare was appointed, it dis- 
 covered that Mr. Macy, as superintendent of the poor, had 
 already been taking care of the mothers who would have been 
 pensioners of the board of child welfare. This has obviated 
 the necessity for a special board to deal with the problem.^** 
 
 Three combination plans actually operated in three different 
 cities may be noted in this connection. Akron, Ohio, has a 
 population of 69,067. The secretary of the Charity Organiza- 
 tion Society is director of the department of public charities. 
 The funds for general relief are provided by the city appropria- 
 tion. The society is responsible for the development of work 
 along constructive lines. The exact division of expenses in 1914 
 was as follows: The city provided a fund for actual relief of 
 resident families in need which was drawn upon by the Charity 
 Organization Society. The city paid the salaries of one assist- 
 ant in the Charity Organization Society, of a city physician, of 
 two nurses and one-third of the salary of the general secretary 
 of the Charity Organization Society. The Charity Organization 
 Society paid the salary of two other visitors and a stenographer. 
 Complete financial reports were made both to the directors of 
 the Charity Organization Society and to the city. No public 
 money passes through the hands of the director of public char- 
 ities who is, also, general secretary of the Charity Organization 
 Society. Bills to be paid from the public fund are paid by the 
 city treasurer after audit by the city auditor.^*' 
 
 In Henderson, Kentucky, the name of the Associated Chari- 
 ties has been changed to Public Welfare Association. All pau- 
 per funds are administered through this agency, except the 
 smaU amount used for pauper burials. In caring for cases of 
 need, orders are given by the secretary of the Public Welfare 
 Association, and are referred at the end of the month to the 
 pauper committee of the city council, which committee approves 
 the bills. In the relief paid for by the city are included gro- 
 ceries, medicine, shoes, necessary clothing, temporary board and 
 any other necessary expenses."^ 
 
 Owensboro, Kentucky, also has a combination plan in opera- 
 tion. Before this arrangement was inaugurated, the mayor 
 of the city gave relief. After the organization of the Associated 
 Charities the council transferred the administration of all city 
 
THE IOWA PLAN 67 
 
 relief to the Associated Charities. The city appropriated $2,000 
 for relief and $500 for administrative expenses. These amounts 
 are not appropriated directly to the Associated Charities, but 
 after the month's bills are approved by the secretary, the chair- 
 man of the joint committee of the Associated Charities, and the 
 council, they are given to the city clerk, who pays them from 
 the city's treasury, and who also gives a monthly check for the 
 administrative expenses. The council has also signfied its inten- 
 tion to pay any amount necessary in excess of the $2,000 allowed. 
 The mayor sends all applicants to the office of the Associated 
 Charities. Transients and hospital cases, to be admitted ajs 
 charity patients, are also to be referred for investigation, un- 
 less the hospital case should be an emergency one. 
 
 In addition to the city of Owensboro, two districts of the 
 county are in charge of the Associated Charities. The county 
 makes no appropriation except for administrative expenses, but 
 all monthly bills, after being approved by the Associated Chari- 
 ties, are presented at the monthly meeting of the county board 
 which is composed of the magistrates of the various county dis- 
 tricts. After the bills are approved by them a check is given 
 covering the full amount of bills incurred during the month. 
 This is deposited in the treasury of the Associated Charities and 
 individual checks are written for the creditors. The adminis- 
 trative expense allowed by the county for this service is $40 a 
 month. In addition to her work as relief administrator the 
 secretary of the Associated Charities acts as juvenile court pro- 
 bation officer, and with the aid of the recreation committee of 
 the association, supervised some playground work during the 
 summer of 1916.^** 
 
 THE IOWA SITUATION 
 
 There are a few specific changes in the law for which the state 
 is ready and which would help promote wider interest in social 
 needs and also would give the different communities greater 
 freedom in taking care of local needs. Iowa poor laws should 
 be codified and obsolete sections should be revised to accord 
 with modem conditions. For example, the provision limiting 
 relief to the amount of two dollars per week for each person, 
 
68 STUDIES IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES 
 
 exclusive of medical attendance, should be amended. The law 
 should be changed so that children may not be kept at the 
 county home. The functions of overseer of the poor should be 
 removed from township trustees,'^^ and the county board of 
 supervisors should be given authority to appoint an overseer of 
 the poor for the entire county with as many assistants as neces- 
 sary. This would make possible the employment of trained 
 workers in counties of less than 10,000 population. 
 
 A new law should provide for the appointment by the State 
 Board of Control of a State Commissioner of Charities, who 
 may require uniform reports of county relief from each county 
 overseer of the poor. This Charities Commissioner should also 
 have authority to standardize records and to establish certain 
 methods of work to promote efficiency of administration. Event- 
 ually, perhaps, this law might be extended, and a State Chari- 
 ties Commission be authorized to have supervisory power and 
 authority to compel standardization of work in children's homes 
 and child-placing agencies, almshouses, and all out-door relief 
 departments.^^' 
 
 A state-wide survey should be made to show the exact social 
 conditions of Iowa. This would help to arouse public opinion 
 to support changes in the present law, and would give a basis 
 for more progressive measures than it is now possible to advo- 
 cate, such as a state law providing for county welfare boards. 
 This is all the more important inasmuch as the general agita- 
 tion for improved poor relief administration is only about ten 
 years old, and has borne definite results only within the past 
 five or six years. 
 
 In all the efforts to improve the efficiency of relief on the more 
 or less mechanical side of administration, the need for intelli- 
 gent, sympathetic appreciation of the struggles of the needy 
 poor must not be forgotten. Human kindness must always 
 accompany the purely scientific administration of relief. The 
 charity worker must be able to recognize the good to be found 
 in every applicant seeking assistance, and must be cognizant 
 that the need for material relief is only one of the needs of those 
 who are unable to maintain themselves ; that the greatest need is 
 the opportunity for self-support. 
 
NOTES AND REFERENCES. 
 
 1. state census, 1915, p. XV. 
 
 2. State census, 1915, p. XVI. 
 
 3. State census, 1915, pp. 606-607. 
 
 4. According to the Iowa census the urban population includes all people 
 living in the 893 incorporated places. There are three classes of 
 these; cities of the first class, having 15,000 or more population; 
 cities of the second class, with 2,000 population or less than 15,000; 
 towns, which have less than 2,000. The United States Census Bureau 
 classifies as urban, all incorporated towns of 2,500 or over. 
 
 5. State census, 1915, p. XXIX. 
 
 6. State census, 1915, p. 593. 
 
 7. Code of Iowa, p. 779; Supplement (1913) p. 848. 
 
 8. Code of Iowa, Sect. 2252 (1897). 
 
 9. Code of Iowa, Sect., 2216 (1897). 
 
 10. Code of Iowa, Sect. 2217 (1897). 
 
 11. Code of Iowa, Sect. 2218 (1897). 
 
 This law has been successfully used in Polk County in a number of 
 cases. 
 
 12. In the code, the word settlement, is used instead of the word resi- 
 dence. Settlement is the technical word used in connection with the 
 determination of eligibility for relief. In this paper the word resi- 
 dence is used in place of settlement. 
 
 13. Code of Iowa, Sect. 2224-1 (1897). 
 
 14. Code of Iowa, Sect. 2224-2 (1897). 
 
 15. Code of Iowa, Sect. 2224-3 (1897). 
 
 16. Code of Iowa, Sect. 2224-4 (1897). 
 
 17. Code of Iowa, Sect. 2224-5 (1897). 
 
 18. Code of Iowa, Sect. 2224-6 (1897). 
 
 19. Code of Iowa, Sect. 2224-7 (1897). 
 
 20. Code of Iowa, Sect. 2225 (1897). 
 
 21. Code of Iowa, Sect. 2226 (1897). 
 
 22. Code of Iowa, Sect. 2227 (1897). 
 
 23. Code of Iowa, Sect. 2228 (1897). 
 
 24. Code of Iowa, Sect. 2229 (1897). 
 
 25. Code of Iowa, Sect. 422, Supplement (1913). 
 Sect. 2232 (1897). 
 
 26. Code of Iowa, Sect. 2247, Supplement (1913). 
 
 27. Code of Iowa, Sect. 2234, Supplement (1913). 
 
 28. Code of Iowa, Sect. 2237, (1897). 
 
 (69) 
 
70 STUDIES IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES 
 
 29. The General Assembly (1917) passed a law to amend Sect. 2230 of 
 the Supplement to the Code (1913) relating to compensation for 
 labor by the poor. The law had stated the rate as five cents per hour. 
 The amendment provides payment "at the prevailing local rate per 
 hour. ' ' 
 
 30. Code of Iowa, Sect. 2230, Supplement (1913). 
 
 31. Code of Iowa, Sect. 2236 (1897). 
 
 32. Code of Iowa, Sect. 254-a20, Supplement (1913). 
 
 33. Code of Iowa, Sect. 254-al4, Supplement (1913). The law as given 
 in the Supplement of the Code (1913) states that the allowance 
 granted shall cease when the child reaches the age of fourteen years. 
 The General Assembly of 1917 extended it to sixteen years. 
 
 34. Code of Iowa, Sect. 254-a20a, Supplement (1913). 
 
 35. Code of Iowa, Sect. 430, Supplemental Supplement. Acts of the Gen- 
 eral Assembly, 1915. 
 
 36. Code of Iowa, Sect. 434-a, Supplemental Supplement. Acts of the 
 General Assembly, 1915. 
 
 37. Code of Iowa, Sect. 431 (1897). 
 
 38. Code of Iowa, Sect. 2722-j, 2722-k, 2722-1, 2722-n, Chapter 10-A Of 
 County Aid for the Blind, Supplemental Supplement, Acts of the 
 General Assembly, 1915. 
 
 39. Code of Iowa, Sect. 2292, Supplement (1913) ; Sect. 254-h Supple- 
 mental Supplement (1915). 
 
 40. Code of Iowa, Sect. 2241, Supplemental Supplement, Acts of the 
 General Assembly, 1915. 
 
 41. Code of Iowa, Sect. 2243, Supplement (1913). 
 
 42. Code of Iowa, Sect. 2244, Supplement (1913). 
 
 43. Code of Iowa, Sect. 2245, Supplement (1913). 
 
 44. Code of Iowa, Sect. 2244, Supplement (1913). 
 
 45. Code of Iowa, Sect. 2249, Supplement (1913). 
 
 46. Code of Iowa, Sect. 733, (1897). 
 
 47. Code of Iowa, Sect. 957, (1897). 
 
 48. Code of Iowa, Sect. 2292, Supplement (1913). 
 
 49. Code of Iowa, Sect. 2308-a Supplement (1913). 
 
 50. Letter from P. S. Treat, secretary of the State Board of Control, May 
 18, 1917; Code of Iowa, Sect. 2726, Supplement (1913) and Sect. 2697 
 (1897). 
 
 51. Code of Iowa, Sect. 2718a, Supplement (1913) ; Code of Iowa, Sect. 
 2716 (1897). 
 
 52. Code of Iowa, Sect. 2715, Supplement (1913). 
 
 53. Census of Iowa, 1915, p. 687. 
 
 54. Study made by the Associated Charities of Des Moines, Iowa. Let- 
 ter from H. S. HoUingsworth, general secretary. May 24, 1917. 
 
 55. See Polk County Financial Report, 1915, p. 40. 
 
 56. See Polk County Financial Eeport, 1915, p. 40. 
 
 57. From the records of the Associated Charities, Des Moines, Iowa. 
 
THE IOWA PLAN 71 
 
 58. From the records of the AsBociated charities, Des Moines, Iowa. 
 
 59. Mr. A. C. Fisher, a member of the board of supervisors, Polk County, 
 Iowa, explained that it is difficult for the county to do road work in 
 the winter months when demand for employment in this connection 
 is greatest. 
 
 60. Code of Iowa, Sect. 2230, Supplement (1913). 
 
 61. In Sioux City, Iowa, the city and county cooperated in giving em- 
 ployment to the unemployed, preference being given to resident fam- 
 ily men. ' ' The arrangement was to the effect that the county would 
 furnish the married men with four hours a day work and the city 
 would furnish the single men with four hours a day work. The 
 amount paid was twenty-five cents an hour. ' ' (Letter from H. L. 
 Houghton, probation officer, Sioux City.) 
 
 62. Code of Iowa, Sect 5142 (1897) reads: "no sheriff or jailer shall re- 
 ceive and no board of supervisors allow, any compensation for keeping 
 or boarding any tramp in the jail or other place in the county, unless 
 such tramp has been duly arrested or committed under the provis- 
 ions of this chapter except the board of supervisors of each county 
 may furnish one night's lodging for apparently deserving persons, 
 and those who are sick or disabled may be cared for as the neces- 
 sities of the case demand." 
 
 63. Letter from Mr. G. B. Sheets, overseer of the poor, Des Moines, Iowa, 
 August 1, 1905. 
 
 64. Eussell Sage Foundation blanks now used. 
 
 65. Information given summer 1915 by A. C. Fisher, member of the 
 board of supervisors, Polk County. 
 
 66. See Polk County Financial Report, 1915, p. 43. 
 
 67. From the records of the Des Moines Associated Charities. 
 
 68. Code of Iowa. Sect. 4775-a (1913). 
 
 69. Code of Iowa, Sects. 254-a31; 254-a32; 254-a33; 254-a34; 254-a35; 
 254-a36; 254-a37; 254-a38; 254-a39; 254-a40, Supplement (1913). 
 
 70. A letter from H. S. Hollingsworth, general secretary of the Asso- 
 ciated Charities of Des Moines, May 24, 1917. 
 
 71. Eules of the Social Service Registration Bureau, Des Moines. 
 
 72. Information obtained 1915 from Miss Jane Shirley, overseer of the 
 poor, Des Moines, Iowa. 
 
 73. Code of Iowa, Sect. 2727a64, Supplement (1913). 
 
 74. State Auditor's report, 1916, Part II, p. 49. 
 
 75. The net cost of the county homes is determined by subtracting from 
 the gross cost, the income received from the sale of farm produce 
 and money received for care of inmates. 
 
 76. State Auditor's report, 1916, Part II, p. 61. 
 
 This includes items as follows ; salary of overseer, provisions, clothing, 
 fuel, medical aid, nurses and hospital, quarantine, burial expense, 
 rent, transportation, dependent children, cash allowances, miscel- 
 laneous. 
 
72 STUDIES IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES 
 
 77. State Auditor's report, 1916, Part II, p. 41. 
 
 78. State Auditor 's report, 1916, Part II, p. 75. 
 
 79. State Auditor's report, 1916, Part I, p. 10. 
 
 80. State Auditor's report, 1916, Part I, p. 10. 
 
 81. State Auditor's report, 1916, Part I, p. 10. 
 
 82. State Board of Control report, 1916, pp. 60, 296. 
 
 83. A questionnaire was sent out by the writer as worker in charge of the 
 Bureau of Social Welfare, Extension Division, State University of 
 Iowa. 
 
 84. Davenport, review of county work prepared by writer, Bureau of 
 Social Welfare, Extension Division, State University of Iowa. 
 
 85. See printed financial report of Dubuque County for example. 
 
 86. Sioux City Survey made by writer. Bureau of Social Welfare, Exten- 
 sion Division, State University of Iowa. Report filed in Extension 
 Division. 
 
 87. Polk County. 
 
 88. Pottawattamie County. 
 
 89. Poweshiek County and many others. This is the usual method. 
 
 90. Davenport survey made by writer. Bureau of Social Welfare, Exten- 
 sion Division, State University of Iowa, for the Commercial Club of 
 Davenport. 
 
 91. After the survey made in Davenport, the Commercial Club of Daven- 
 port, through one of its secretaries, consulted with the Scott County 
 board of supervisors about conditions as found. The granting of 
 widows' pensions has since been taken out of the hands of the su- 
 pervisors, and pensions are granted direct by the judge of the dis- 
 trict court. (Letter from Irving C. Norwood, secretary, Davenport 
 Commercial Club, May 29, 1917). 
 
 92. Sioux City and Des Moines. 
 
 93. Woodbury County. 
 
 94. From the report of the survey made by writer for the Poweshiek 
 county board of supervisors, 1912. 
 
 95. Report of the Social Service League of Grinnell for 1913. 
 
 96. Annual report of the Social Service League, Grinnell, Iowa, Novem 
 ber, 1913-1914. 
 
 97. Statement of I. H. Saunders, chairman of the board of supervisors, 
 Poweshiek County, printed in the yearly report of the Social Service 
 League, Grinnell, 1913-1914. 
 
 98. Report of the Social Service League, Grinnell, 1913-1914. 
 
 99. Statement of I. H. Saunders, chairman of the board of supervisors, 
 Poweshiek County. 
 
 100. Oskaloosa Social Service League, annual report, March, 1915. 
 
 101. Oskaloosa Social Service League, annual report, March, 1915. 
 
 102. Statement of Dr. G. Hardy Clark, Waterloo, Iowa. 
 
 103. Statement of Dr. G. Hardy Clark, Waterloo, Iowa. 
 
THE IOWA PLAN 73 
 
 104. Proceedings of the Iowa State Conferenece of Charities and Correc- 
 tions, 1914, pp. 40, 41. 
 
 105. The speaker was the writer, at that time assistant secretary Asso- 
 ciated Charities, Des Moines, Iowa. 
 
 106. Eeport of the survey made by the Bureau of Social Welfare, Exten- 
 sion Division, State University of Iowa. 
 
 107. First Annual Eeport of the Associated Charities of Ottumwa, 1916. 
 
 108. Eeport filed in Extension Division, State University of Iowa. 
 
 109. Eeport of Miss Mabel Tibbott, secretary of the Associated Charities 
 and overseer of the poor. Fort Dodge, Iowa. 
 
 110. Eeport of the survey made by the Bureau of Social Welfare of the 
 Extension Division, State University of Iowa. The county board of 
 supervisors paid the expenses of the survey. 
 
 111. Letter from Miss Katherine Ewing, general secretary of the Social 
 Welfare League and overseer of the poor of Cedar Eapids, 1917. 
 
 112. From a letter from Sara A. Brown, overseer of the poor and general 
 secretary of the Associated Charities, Ottumwa. 
 
 113. From a letter from Dr. 6. Hardy Clark, Waterloo, Iowa. 
 
 114. GiUin's Foor Relief Legislation m Iowa, pp, 332, 333. 
 
 115. Butler's A Century of Progress, p. 146. 
 
 116. Letter from J. M. Hanson, secretary Charity Organization Society, 
 Youngstown, Ohio, May 22, 1917. 
 
 117. Quarterly Bulletin, State Board of Charities and Corrections of South 
 Carolina, June, 1915. 
 
 118. Letter from Professor A. J. Todd, University of Minnesota, June 25, 
 1917. 
 
 119. The Survey, December 30, 1916, p. 356; The Survey, February 5, 
 1917, p. 530. Letter from Geo. B. Mangold, director of the school of 
 Civics, St. Louis, May 21, 1917. 
 
 120. Report of the Public Welfare Board, Kansas City, Mo., 1916. 
 
 121. Eeport of the Social Welfare Board, St. Joseph, Mo., 1916. 
 
 122. The Survey, November 4, 1916, p. 102. 
 
 123. Letter from Wm. S. Bixby, Secretary of the Charity Organization 
 Society, Akron, Ohio, 1914. 
 
 124. Letter from Miss Lauretta K. Hawley, secretary, Public Welfare As- 
 sociation, Henderson, Ky., May 28, 1917. 
 
 125. Letter from Miss Ethel I. McLane, secretary Associated Charities, 
 Owensboro, Ky., May 28, 1917. 
 
 126. Code of Iowa, Sect. 2230, Supplement, (1913). 
 
 127. Code of Iowa, Sect. 2249, Supplement (1913). 
 
 128. Code of Iowa, Sect. 2232, (1897). 
 
 129. The use of the term "pauper" should be eliminated from the statutes 
 and from aU official documents and reports to conform with modem 
 terminology. There is a precedent for such a change in the act of the 
 legislature in 1909, which substituted "county home" for "county 
 poor farm." 
 
Makers 
 
 Syracuse, N Y. 
 
 PH.JM.2I. tMi