. . / ' ' '' 
:!1 /i. CO-OPERATIVE SOCIAL RESEARCH 
BY 
SIMMONS COLLEGE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK 
BOSTON COUNCIL OF SOCIAL AGENCIES 
AND 
THE WOMEN’S EDUCATIONAL AND 
INDUSTRIAL UNION 
REPORT NUMBER 2 
\ 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
STUDIES BASED ON TWO THOUSAND 
CASE RECORDS OF SOCIAL AGENCIES 
BY 
LUCILE EAVES AND ASSOCIATES 
* M 
i 
Introduction by C. C. Carstens, Director, 
Child Welfare League of America 
BOSTON, 1923 
PUBLISHED AND DISTRIBUTED BY THE 
women’s EDUCATIONAL AND INDUSTRIAL UNION Copyright, 1924, by the 
women’s educational and industrial union 
Boston, Mass. CHARTI. STATE LAWS FOR PROTECTION OF CHIL DR EN. 
KEY TO CHART I1 
1. Child labor law. 
2. Child labor law prohibiting without exceptions employment 
in factories and stores under 14 and in mines and quarries 
under 16 years of age. 
3. Prohibition of night work without exception under 16 years 
of age. 
4. Limitation of daily hours of labor in any gainful occupation 
to 8 hours under 16 years of age. 
1 Chart I was prepared by Mrs. Bertha Hills Styles, to accompany her 
article, Part III, Public Intervention in Massachusetts for the Protection of 
Children in Need of Special Care. 4 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
5. Statewide compulsory education. 
6. Statewide compulsory education until 16 years of age. 
7. Compulsory continuation school. 
8. Juvenile court. 
9. Juvenile court for all under 17 years of age. 
10. Right to remove child from parent. 
11. Age of consent 18 years. 
12. Adoption regulated by: 
(a) Petition through court. 
(b) Consent of parents. 
(c) Publication of petition. 
(d) Public hearing. 
13. Equal guardianship rights for father and mother. 
14. Disposition of minor children of divorced parents specifically 
stated to be determined by the welfare of the children. 
15. Mother’s aid law. 
16. Mother’s aid specifically stated to be given during imprison- 
ment of father. 
17. Non-support law providing for bond, suspended sentence, 
regular payments and supervision by court, etc. 
18. Illegitimate child supported as if legitimate by father. INTRODUCTION 
The studies contained in this volume are based upon informa- 
tion found in 2,190 routine case records obtained from thirteen 
social agencies that have their headquarters in Boston, mostly 
working with children. Of this number of case records 1,600 
were furnished by the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention 
of Cruelty to Children. 
This enterprise, therefore, is an interesting undertaking in 
which information gathered by social workers in their daily tasks 
with families has been evaluated, and is here made to throw light 
upon such complicated social problems as the neglect of children 
and the discovery of better methods of community organization 
of remedy and prevention. 
Whether the conclusions contained in these studies shall be 
able to stand the various other examinations to which they should 
be subjected, as well as the tests of time, much light is thrown on 
social questions with which the whole community must increas- 
ingly grapple, but about which few but social workers are at 
present much excited. 
With Mothers’ Aid statutes on the books of forty-two states 
of the United States, we may with fairness say that a remedy has 
been found for the care of the fatherless child that has a good 
mother left, but what about the motherless child? As a rule the 
widower with young children, after having recovered from the 
first shock of his bereavement, sets to work to be both mother 
and father to his flock. The fact that he is able to provide the 
means for their support gives him a false feeling of security, out 
of which he is often very rudely awakened when his children 
begin to show signs of neglect, of rude conduct, or of budding 
delinquency, whose further development he does not have the 
time or the knowledge to prevent. Even when there are older 
children, either fully eighteen or approaching it, to help with the 
care of the younger ones, the problem is not wholly solved, since 
they are not always capable and are seldom trained for the task, 
and even when they are good household managers they find it 
hard to train their younger brothers and sisters into community 
living. 
We are all agreed that a family should not be sapped of its 
own self-help, but at the same time it is necessary for a social 
agency in order to do preventive work to come on the scene early. 
How the private and public children’s and family welfare agen- 
cies can successfully play in with the family in preventing the 6 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
physical and moral shipwreck of its children, a problem that seems 
much more common in widowers’ than in widows’ families, is a 
question that we shall have with us for some time to come. 
If once our communities could be permeated with the under- 
standing that children’s aid societies are not primarily for the 
children of the “down and out” or of “paupers,” but for the pur- 
pose of rendering service to the self-respecting who often need 
professional advice and assistance in working out their own plans, 
and then if children’s societies could help to develop flexible pro- 
grams for keeping father and children together or at least in close 
touch with each other, some more of the tragedies could be pre- 
vented. 
In most cities a surviving father who can pay board for his 
children is forced to make his own plans. But if child-placing is 
an art, as most children’s workers believe and are generally ready 
to prove, the chances of his placing his children suitably are poor. 
Probably at least fifty per cent, of the placements made by the 
father are maladjustments. There is, therefore, unusual oppor- 
tunity for further development to meet children’s needs, even in 
Boston where child-placing has taken great strides. Of this need 
this study gives evidence. 
When a family is unable or unwilling to train or care for its 
children, the school, the church, the social agencies, the munici- 
pality, or the state have had responsibilities added unto them. If 
these are not met in a suitable way there will be inevitable break- 
down that will show itself sooner or later in juvenile delinquence, 
in physical or mental defect or degeneracy. To prevent such 
results the community’s interest must concern itself more and 
more with the earlier years in order that the source of the trouble 
may be reached. 
The study of the plight of children in prisoners’ families 
and of those whose homes have been broken by divorce, separa- 
tion or desertion gives evidence of the influences to which large 
numbers are exposed and they foreshadow results in their lives 
that bring misery to themselves and social problems to the com- 
munity. 
Up to the present time child neglect has been left almost 
entirely to private effort. These organizations have performed 
this function with devotion, but they rarely have been able to 
compass the whole task. Such states as Massachusetts, Minne- 
sota, Ohio and New York have extensive programs in child care, 
but there are in all of them as yet many gaps. Many states have 
child hygiene programs in which every individual infant counts, 
and every birth is not only recorded immediately after it has CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
7 
occurred but every home is visited. How soon will our com- 
munities realize that the runabout child and the child in the school 
and adolescent years is equally in need of systematic oversight, 
which is a task that is so extensive that it requires the interest of 
city and state in its corporate capacity ? 
C. C. Carstens, Director, 
Child Welfare League of America. 
New York, January 3, 1924. Mother is the keystone of the family. When there is no 
support beyond father’s earnings and father dies, some assistance 
must be provided, but there is still the mother’s heart and mother’s 
care to keep the flock together. When mother dies there is little 
remaining but desolation. 
This brief study of 590 widowers’ families reveals the hope- 
lessness with which social agencies approach the motherless brood. 
Almost always they break up the family; and though they carry 
out placement effectively, there is comparatively little done to 
preserve the family ties and to keep father and children in close 
relationship. 
But to say that the agencies fail in this particular is far from 
saying how they might succeed. Mother’s loss cannot be replaced. 
If a housekeeper is installed a complication of difficulties sud- 
denly arises. About 7 per cent, of the fathers studied tried this 
scheme and nearly everyone failed. Some tried to do mother’s 
work as well as their own. This also failed. What to do with 
a widower’s children is a case problem of first magnitude. This 
study renders a community service by pointing out the difficulties 
and calling attention to the need of study. Mother’s aid is a child 
welfare process. What can we do for the widower’s children? 
Robert W. Kelso, Executive Secretary, 
Boston Council of Social Agencies. DIRECTOR’S PREFACE 
It is a pleasure to acknowledge the cordial support and in- 
creased interest of Boston social workers in our co-operative re- 
search series. Persons in charge of children’s agencies gave 
much time and thought to making available, under restrictions 
safeguarding their confidential character, the case records on 
which the following studies have been based. Their assistance in 
the interpretation of findings is evident in the signed articles and 
in the summary of discussions at the general meeting of repre- 
sentatives of agencies contributing case records. 
The three studies based on records of the Massachusetts 
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children were made by 
fellows of the Research Department of the Women’s Educational 
and Industrial Union, working under my supervision. The pub- 
lished reports are condensations of those presented in satisfaction 
of requirements for the M. S. degree at Simmons College. Stu- 
dents in the statistics class at the Simmons College School of 
Social Work assisted me in the analyses of the records of the 
thirteen agencies contributing to the more general study of widow- 
ers’ children. My research assistant, Miss C. E. Heermann, has 
given much valuable assistance in the copying of manuscripts, 
preparation of statistical tables and graphs, and in caring for de- 
tails of publication. 
Lucile Eaves, 
Director, Research Department, Women’s 
Educational and Industrial Union. 
Associate Professor of Economic Research, 
Simmons College. CONTENTS 
PAGE 
Introduction 5-7 
Director’s Preface 9 
PART I—Widowers' Children—A Study of Case Records from 
13 Social Agencies, by Lucile Eaves, assisted by stu- 
dents in the statistics class of the Simmons College 
School of Social Work 13-50 
Chapter I. 
Introduction 15 
Causes of the mothers’ deaths 16 
Family conditions when the mother died 22 
Means of discovering the needs of widowers’ children. 23 
Conditions found in the widowers’ families 26 
Personal characteristics of the widowers 26 
Economic status of the families 30 
Situations found within the families 33 
Relation of older children to widowers’ families 34 
Experiences with hired housekeepers 35 
Methods of caring for the widowers’ children 38 
Foster homes for widowers’ children 42 
Discussions of findings by representatives of children's 
agencies 49 
PART II—The Neglected Children of Widowers, of Arrested 
Parents, and of Families Broken by Separation, De- 
sertion or Divorce—1,600 Case Records of the Massa- 
chusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to 
Children 61-103 
Chapter I—The Neglected Children of Widowers, by Anna 
Ely Moorehouse 53-64 
The sources of information 53 
Significant family data 54 
The neglect of the children 57 
Activities of the M. S. P. C. C. while caring for the 
widowers’ families 62 
Conclusions 63 
Chapter II—The Neglected Children of Arrested Parents, 
by Barbara H. Wright 65-76 
Introduction 65 
Sources of information 65 
General characteristics of the families 66 
Number and age of children 67 
Family characteristics 67 
Means by which cases of neglect were reported 70 
Forms of neglect from which the children suffered.... 70 
Forms of neglect found in cases studied intensively... 72 
Types of agencies co-operating with the M. S. P. C. C.. 73 CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
PAGE 
Actions taken by the court 73 
Actions taken in caring for the neglected children of 
arrested parents 74 
Summary 76 
Chapter III—Neglected Children of Families Broken try 
Separation, Desertion or Divorce, by Sophia 
C. Gleim 77-82 
Characteristics of the parents 77 
Economic conditions 79 
Neglect of children in broken families 80 
Treatment given broken families with neglected chil- 
dren 81 
Chapter IY—Combined Tables for Studies in Part II 83-103 
PART III—Public Intervention in Massachusetts for the Pro- 
tection of Children in Need of Special Care, by 
Bertha Hills Styles 105-119 
Chapter I. 
Introduction 107 
An adequate income for the family with children 110 
The special court for children 112 
The care of the illegitimate child 114 
Administrative agencies—The probation system 117 
The overseers of the poor, and the State Division of 
Child Guardianship 118 
Possibility of co-operation and extension 119 
TABLES. PART I. 
1. Boston social agencies whose case records supplied data for 
the study of widowers’ children 16 
2. Causes of deaths of 493 mothers of widowers’ children 17 
3. Children less than eighteen years old left motherless by the 
deaths of the widowers’ wives 18 
3-A. Age distribution of children in widowers’ families 20 
4. Age periods when the mothers of the widowers’ children 
died, by causes of deaths 22 
5. Time between the death of the mother and application for 
assistance to the widower 24 
6. Persons who requested the children’s agencies to give assist- 
ance to the widower’s children 25 
7. Birthplaces of widowers 27 
8. Approximate weekly earnings of widowers requiring assist- 
ance in the care of their children 31 
9. Occupations of widowers needing help in the care of their 
children 32 
10. Children less than 18 years old found in the widowers’ 
families 33 
11. Relation of the children to their fathers at the time the 
case records were analyzed 44 12 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
TABLES. PART II. page 
1. Birthplaces of the fathers and mothers of children from 1,600 
families cared for by the Massachusetts Society for the 
Prevention of Cruelty to Children 84 
2. Religious affiliations of the parents in 1,600 families cared 
for by the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of 
Cruelty to Children 85 
3. Occupations of 1,600 fathers of families cared for by the 
M. S. P. C. C 86 
4. Age distribution of the children in 1,600 families cared for 
by the M. S. P. C. C 89 
5. Children found in 1,600 families cared for by the M. S. P. 
C. C 90 
6-A. Evidences of degeneracy found in 1,600 families cared for by 
the M. S. P. C. C.—Parents 91 
6-B. Evidences of degeneracy found in 1,600 families cared for by 
the M. S. P. C. C.—Children 92 
7. Conditions lying back of the neglect of children in families 
cared for by the M. S. P. C. C 93 
8. Means by which the neglect of the children of 300 families 
had been reported to the M. S. P. C. C 94 
9. Conditions which made special care of children necessary 
in 1,600 families cared for by the M. S. P. C. C 95 
10. Predominant factors found by agents of the M. S. P. C. C. 
indicating the need of intervention for the protection of 
the children in the 1,600 families studied 96 
11. Forms of neglect of children discovered by the agents of the 
M. S. P. C. C 98 
12. Types of agencies enlisted by the M. S. P. C. C. in dealing 
with families of neglected children 99 
13. Court actions instituted while 1,600 families were under the 
care of the M. S. P. C. C 100 
14. Actions taken by the M. S. P. C. C. in dealing with cases in- 
volving 1,600 families 101 
15. Final disposition of the children in families cared for by the 
M. S. P. C. C 102 
16. Estimates of success in treatment of families cared for by 
the M. S. P. C. C 103 
CHARTS. 
I. State Laws for Protection of Children 3 
II. Age Distribution of Children in the Widowers’ Families 19 
(Records from Thirteen Social Agencies.) 
III. Ages of Mothers at Deaths—Five Principal Causes 21 
(Records from Thirteen Social Agencies.) 
IV. Age Distribution—1,600 M. S. P. C. C. Case Records 88 
V. Forms of Neglect—300 Case Records of the M. S. P. C. C 97 PART I 
WIDOWERS’ CHILDREN 
A STUDY OF CASE RECORDS FROM THIRTEEN 
SOCIAL AGENCIES 
BY LUCILE EAVES, ASSISTED BY STUDENTS IN THE 
STATISICS CLASS OF SIMMONS COLLEGE 
SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK 
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 
1922-1923 CHAPTER I 
WIDOWERS’ CHILDREN 
Widowers have been neglected by students of family relief, 
although the care of their children requires a large share of the 
funds and services of children’s agencies. Satisfactory plans for 
dealing with the children of widows were developed after many 
years of cruel and wasteful bungling. Mothers’ pension laws 
found on the statute books of 42 states express a general accept- 
ance of the belief that mothers of fatherless children should be 
given financial assistance, advice and guidance while filling the 
double role of father and mother. The report of a recent in- 
vestigation by the Children’s Bureau of the care given over three 
thousand of these children, fathered by the public, may be read 
with a sense of satisfaction.1 Modern social workers have 
achieved a solution of an age-old problem—the care of the father- 
less ! But similar study of assistance given widowers shows com- 
parative failure in dealing with the motherless. 
An appraisal of the conditions to be met must precede the 
making of plans better adapted to the peculiar needs of children 
who have suffered the loss of this most primitive and indispen- 
sable of social ties. Such an effort is made in this study to which 
many present and prospective social workers have contributed. 
Members of the statistics classes of the School of Social Work 
of Simmons College assisted in the analyses of 590 case records 
of care given widowers’ families by thirteen Boston children’s 
agencies.2 (Table 1.) Data from these reports reveal the causes 
of death of the mothers, the conditions in the families when they 
turned to the social agencies for assistance, and the subsequent 
histories of the children while under the care of social workers. 
1 Nesbitt, Florence. Standards of Public Aid to Children in their Own 
Homes, U. S. Children’s Bureau Publication No. 118. 
3 The records were analyzed in the order in which they were found in 
the files, or assigned by officials of the agencies. While a fair sample was 
obtained from each contributing agency, the records were not used exhaust- 
ively. There remained many widowers’ families dealt with in recent years 
whose case records were not included in the study. Efforts were made to 
avoid duplication, but since a child sometimes was transferred from one 
agency to another which seemed to have facilities for treatment better 
adapted to his peculiar needs, and since a large group cooperated in the case 
analyses, it seems probable that in a few instances the same widower ap- 
peared in more than one case record. Such duplications, however, will not 
invalidate general conclusions based on the tabulated data. Investigators 
wishing copies of schedules used in the analyses of the case records may 
obtain them by addressing the Research Department, Women’s Educational 
and Industrial Union, Boston. 16 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
TABLE 1. BOSTON SOCIAL AGENCIES WHOSE CASE RECORDS 
SUPPLIED DATA FOR THE STUDY OF WIDOWERS’ CHILDREN 
Agency 
Records 
Number 
Per cent. 
Total 
590 
100.00 
Children’s Mission to Children 
118 
20.00 
New England Home for Little Wanderers 
Division of Child Guardianship, Massachusetts De- 
96 
16.27 
partment of Public Welfare 
Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty 
85 
14.41 
to Children1 
78 
13.22 
Judge Baker Foundation 
42 
7.12 
Church Home Society 
39 
6.61 
Boston Children’s Aid Society 
33 
5.59 
Boston Society for the Care of Girls 
22 
3.73 
Federated Jewish Charities 
22 
3.73 
Family Welfare or Charity Organization Societies.... 
21 
3.56 
Boston Children’s Friend Society 
14 
2.37 
Bethesda Society 
13 
2.20 
Hospital Social Service Departments 
7 
1.19 
1 See also the study by Anna Ely Morehouse (Part II, Chap. I), based 
on data obtained from analyses of 500 case records of earlier dates than 
these used in this chapter. 
Causes of the Mothers’ Deaths 
More than two out of five of the mothers had died of the 
highly infectious diseases—influenza and tuberculosis. (Table 2.) 
Death overtook them when they were surrounded by young chil- 
dren dependent on their care. (Table 3-A, Chart II.) Seven 
out of every ten of those who died of tuberculosis, and eight out 
of every ten of those who died of influenza were between 25 and 
40 years old when they were parted from their little flocks. 
(Table 4, Chart III.) Influenza left 361 and tuberculosis 330 
motherless children under 18 years of age. Thus over a third of 
the children studied required special care because their mothers 
were cut down in the prime of life by these two diseases. (Table 
3.) The need of efforts to inform these devoted household nurses 
about methods of avoiding infection or of preventing the devel- 
opment of latent tuberculosis is obvious. CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
17 
TABLE 2. CAUSES OF DEATHS OF 4931 MOTHERS OF WIDOWERS’ 
CHILDREN. CASE RECORDS FROM THIRTEEN 
SOCIAL AGENCIES 
Cause of death 
Mothers who died of 
diseases specified 
Number 
Per cent. 
Total 
493 
100.00 
Tuberculosis 
103 
20.89 
Influenza 
106 
21.50 
Childbirth, miscarriage 
62 
12.58 
Pneumonia 
46 
9.33 
Cancer 
38 
7.71 
Kidney troubles 
21 
4.26 
Heart diseases 
17 
3.45 
Insanity, brain affections 
14 
2.84 
Operations, surgical shock 
13 
2.64 
Septicemia 
9 
1.83 
Suicide 
6 
1.22 
5 
1.01 
Appendicitis 
4 
.81 
Gall-stones 
4 
.81 
4 
.81 
Paralysis 
4 
.81 
Accidents 
3 
.61 
3 
.61 
3 
.61 
Typhoid 
2 
.41 
2 
.41 
2 
.41 
2 
.41 
20 
4.06 
1 The causes of death were not stated in 97 of the case records studied. 18 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
TABLE 3. CHILDREN LESS THAN EIGHTEEN YEARS OLD LEFT 
MOTHERLESS BY THE DEATHS OF THE WIDOWERS’ WIVES. 
RECORDS TAKEN FROM THIRTEEN SOCIAL AGENCIES 
Cause of death 
of mother 
Children 
under 18 
left 
motherless 
Widowers’ families in which the mothers 
died of diseases specified, leaving chil- 
dren under eighteen years of age 
as stated below 
Num- 
ber 
Per 
cent. 
1 
2 
3 
4 
5 
6 
7 
8 
9 
10 
Total1 
.1,932 
100.00 
88 
246 
396 
276 
440 
270 
140 
48 
18 
10 
Tuberculosis ... 
. 330 
17.08 
13 
38 
93 
60 
90 
36 
Influenza 
361 
18.69 
11 
44 
69 
40 
75 
24 
63 
16 
9 
10 
Childbirth, 
miscarriage .. 
. 220 
11.39 
8 
28 
39 
40 
30 
30 
28 
8 
9 
Pneumonia 
148 
7.66 
7 
22 
24 
16 
35 
36 
8 
Cancer 
122 
6.31 
10 
12 
24 
12 
45 
12 
7 
Kidney troubles. 
67 
3.47 
4 
8 
18 
25 
12 
Heart diseases.. 
39 
2.02 
5 
10 
15 
4 
5 
Insanity, brain 
affections .... 
36 
1.86 
5 
10 
3 
4 
6 
8 
Operations, 
surgical shock 
43 
2.23 
4 
2 
12 
5 
6 
14 
Septicemia 
37 
1.92 
4 
6 
8 
5 
6 
8 
Suicide 
22 
1.14 
4 
3 
4 
5 
6 
Miscellaneous .. 
195 
10.09 
9 
24 
45 
28 
25 
36 
28 
Not stated 
312 
16.15 
12 
40 
45 
60 
95 
60 
1 Data were incomplete or the children were older in 16 records. 
Thorough instruction might prevent also many of the deaths 
from childbirth and pneumonia, although mortality from these 
diseases was less. One out of 8 of the mothers died in child- 
birth, and one in 10 of pneumonia. Cancer caused the deaths of 
38, or about one in 13. This disease overtook half of its victims 
when they were over forty, so that their children were older and 
better able to dispense with motherly care. 
The three groups of deaths coming next in frequency may 
yield less readily to preventive efforts. The kidney troubles de- 
veloped among mothers of all ages, although more common 
between 30 and 40. This was true also of various brain affec- 
tions or insanity, but diseases of the heart took their toll when the 
mothers were in the later thirties. The various other maladies 
caused deaths with frequencies less than half as great as that of 
the least of these 8 major causes of death. (Table 2.) CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
19 
CHARTS AGE DISTRIBUTION OF CHILDREN IN THE WIDOWERS’ PAHlLlCS. 
RECORDS FROM |» AGENCIES. 
COMPARE WITH CHART JSL » 
COMPLETE data is in TABLE 3-A. 
CHILDREN 
AGES 20 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
TABLE 3-A. AGE DISTRIBUTION OF CHILDREN IN WIDOWERS’ 
FAMILIES. RECORDS TAKEN FROM THIRTEEN 
SOCIAL AGENCIES 
Age 
Children of ages 
specified 
Number 
Per cent. 
Total1 
2,145 
100 00 
Less than one year 
65 
3.03 
One year and less than two 
64 
2.98 
Two years and less than three 
94 
4.38 
Three years and less than four 
107 
4.99 
Four years and less than five 
114 
5.31 
Five years and less than six 
124 
5.78 
Six years and less than seven 
153 
7.13 
Seven years and less than eight 
146 
6.81 
Eight years and less than nine 
132 
6.15 
Nine years and less than ten 
138 
6.43 
Ten years and less than eleven 
126 
5.87 
Eleven years and less than twelve 
134 
6.25 
Twelve years and less than thirteen 
109 
5.08 
Thirteen years and less than fourteen 
95 
4.43 
Fourteen years and less than fifteen 
85 
3.96 
Fifteen years and less than sixteen 
94 
4.38 
Sixteen years and less than seventeen 
83 
3.87 
Seventeen years and less than eighteen 
60 
2.80 
Eighteen years and less than nineteen 
51 
2.38 
Nineteen years and less than twenty 
36 
1.68 
Twenty years and less than twenty-one .... 
27 
1.26 
Twenty-one years and more 
108 
5.04 
1 Ages were not stated for 81 children, and 45 had died before the record 
opened. It is possible that in some records older children not living with 
the widower were omitted. The ages stated were those given when the 
case opened. CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
21 
CHARTIH. A6ES OF MOTHERS AT DEATHS* FIVE PRINCIPAL CAUSES. 
complete data is in table a-. 
PNEUMONIA 
CANCER 
TUBERCULOSIS 
INFLUENZA 
CHU.D0IRTN 
MOTHERS 
AGES 22 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
TABLE 4. AGE PERIODS WHEN THE MOTHERS OF THE WIDOW- 
ERS’ CHILDREN DIED, BY CAUSES OF DEATH. RECORDS 
TAKEN FROM THIRTEEN SOCIAL AGENCIES 
Cause of death 
Number of mothers 
diseases in the 
who died of specified 
stated age periods 
Total 
15- 
19 
20- 
24 
25- 
29 
30- 
34 
35- 
39 
40- 
44 
45- 
49 
50- 
54 
Total 
. . 3371 
6 
35 
64 
85 
73 
51 
17 
6 
Tuberculosis 
. . 67 
1 
6 
14 
14 
18 
11 
3 
Influenza 
. . 67 
3 
5 
20 
20 
13 
6 
Childbirth, miscarriage .... 
. . 31 
5 
6 
6 
5 
6 
3 
Pneumonia 
. . 30 
i 
2 
5 
11 
5 
6 
Cancer 
.. 27 
1 
1 
4 
8 
5 
3 
5 
Kidney troubles 
. . 17 
2 
3 
4 
5 
1 
2 
Heart diseases 
. . 11 
1 
2 
7 
1 
Insanity, brain affections .. 
.. 12 
2 
1 
5 
1 
2 
i 
Operations, surgical shock.. 
4 
1 
1 
2 
Septicemia 
4 
1 
2 
1 
Suicide 
5 
4 
1 
Goiter 
5 
1 
4 
Appendicitis 
3 
1 
1 
1 
Gall-stones 
4 
1 
i 
i 
i 
Paralysis 
4 
1 
2 
i 
Miscellaneous 
. . 14 
1 
2 
2 
4 
2 
3 
Not stated 
. . 32 
3 
4 
10 
4 
8 
3 
A negligible proportion of these mothers could be classed 
with those physically and mentally unfit for the continuation of 
the race. The general utilization of preventive medical knowledge 
at our command might have saved or prolonged the lives of one- 
half to three-fourths of these women who were soon proved to 
be indispensable to the maintenance of normal family life for 
their husbands and children. As we consider the complex and 
difficult problems created by their loss, we may well remind our- 
selves of Homer Folks’ declaration that prevention is “relatively 
certain, complete, permanent, cheap and quick.” 
1 Ages at death were not stated in 253 records. 
Family Conditions When the Mothers Died 
The disintegration of the widowers’ families commenced 
during the last illnesses of their wives, as it was inevitable that, 
with but few exceptions, there was a loss of such orderly family 
life and regular habits as may have been in force while the 
mothers were in charge. The children often were scattered in 
the homes of relatives or friends, or were neglected while all the 
family resources were devoted to the care of their mothers. 23 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
About one in ten (11 per cent.) of the families were in touch 
with social agencies because they had required help before the 
mothers’ deaths. This group was composed largely of those 
whose resources had been depleted by the prolonged financial de- 
mands made by such diseases as cancer and tuberculosis. 
The funeral often was followed by months of drifting from 
bad to worse. Many of the fathers failed to realize how indis- 
pensable had been the services rendered by the mothers; and 
their preoccupation with personal sorrow prevented the focussing 
of attention on the needs of the children. Such descriptive 
phrases as “dazed,” “completely overcome by his loss,” occur 
frequently in the case records. Their reluctance to seek help in 
the care of their children is suggested by the fact that over half 
managed to struggle through the first year without assistance. 
No doubt many failed to realize that their children were being 
injured seriously by the lack of care and supervision. (Table 5.) 
Here we meet with our first failure in the care of widowers’ 
children. No argument is needed to prove that a poor wage- 
earner whose family is dependent on his daily earnings, and 
whose savings have been depleted by the last illness and funeral 
of his wife, rarely is capable of finding the means for giving 
proper care to a family of young children. Fathers as well as 
mothers are entitled to recognition and assistance in the honorable 
task of rearing the next generation! A preventive program 
would require the prompt discovery of all of these families whose 
circumstances make disaster almost inevitable. The case records 
gave abundant testimony of the physical and moral neglect suf- 
fered during the interval between the mothers’ deaths and the 
discovery of need of assistance in the care of the widowers’ 
children. They show also the agencies which might be organized 
for a more fully preventive program. 
Means of Discovering the Needs of Widowers’ Children 
The alert and well-trained workers in Boston’s numerous 
social agencies were most concerned about the necessity of pro- 
viding adequate care for these motherless children. They obtained 
assistance for about two out of five of the families. We would ex- 
pect the various children’s agencies to discover the needs for their 
services, but the important role of medical social service in enlist- 
ing prompt attention to the needs of neglected children had not 
been so fully appreciated. Help was brought to one in eight of 
the families through efforts of the social workers in hospitals, 
clinics and dispensaries, or of visiting nurses. While co-operating 24 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
TABLE 5. TIME BETWEEN THE DEATH OF THE MOTHER 
AND APPLICATION FOR ASSISTANCE TO THE WIDOWER. 
RECORDS TAKEN FROM THIRTEEN SOCIAL AGENCIES 
Time 
Widowers’ 
families 
Number 
Per cent. 
Total families 
.... 5451 
100.00 
Under care before the death of the mother 
.... 60 
11.00 
Application made in less than one month 
.... 58 
10.66 
One month and less than six months 
.... 94 
17.25 
Six months and less than one year 
.... 47 
8.62 
One year and less than two years 
.... 54 
9.91 
Two years and less than three years 
.... 65 
11.93 
Three years and less than four years 
52 
9.54 
Four years and less than five years 
33 
6.06 
Five years and less than six years 
20 
3.67 
Six years and less than seven years 
.... 12 
2.20 
Seven years and less than eight years 
8 
1.47 
Eight years and less than nine years 
5 
0.92 
Nine years and less than ten years 
7 
1.28 
Ten years and more 
.... 30 
5.50 
1 Data for this table were incomplete in 45 records. 
with physicians caring for the mothers during their last illnesses, 
they learned of family needs and reported to children’s agencies 
cases where the father seemed unable to provide suitable care. 
Relatives made the applications for assistance in one-fourth of 
the cases receiving care. Fathers usually sought help, though in 
some families aunts or grandparents felt the greater sense of re- 
sponsibility for the welfare of the motherless children. (Table 6.) 
Private rather than public agencies assumed the chief respon- 
sibility for finding the assistance needed by the widowers’ families. 
The records indicate that only 13 of the 590 families were brought 
to the attention of child-caring agencies by public school officials, 
yet the schools are in continuous contact with the children, and 
their representatives might well be the first to discover any serious 
lack of care and supervision.1 With a complete development of 
the spirit of social service, supervisors, teachers and school nurses 
will become expert in recognizing situations where there is prob- 
ability that children may be in need of special protection, and 
will develop means for their care, or will feel responsible for 
enlisting private agencies capable of rendering the needed services. 
In communities less generously supplied with social agencies 
1 The public school authorities play a more important role in cases of 
children who required the intervention of the Society for the Prevention of 
Cruelty to Children. Part II, Chapter IV, Table 8. 25 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
TABLE 6. PERSONS WHO REQUESTED THE CHILDREN’S AGEN- 
CIES TO GIVE ASSISTANCE TO THE WIDOWERS’ CHILDREN. 
RECORDS TAKEN FROM THIRTEEN SOCIAL AGENCIES 
Persons 
Widowers’ families 
whose needs were 
made known by the 
persons specified 
Number Per cent. 
Total 
590 
147 
106 
12 
100.00 
24.92 
17.97 
2.03 
Relatives 
Fathers 
Grandparents 
Aunts 
16 
2.71 
Other Relatives 
13 
2.20 
Social workers from 
229 
38.81 
Children’s Agencies 
Family Welfare Societies, or 
associated chari- 
90 
15.25 
ties and other relief agencies 
Social Service departments of hospitals, clinics, 
46 
7.80 
and dispensaries 
65 
11.02 
Nurses’ Organizations 
13 
2.20 
Other agencies 
15 
2.54 
Public Officials 
81 
13.73 
Overseers of the Poor 
State Department of Public 
Welfare, Bureau 
9 
1.53 
of Child Guardianship .. 
4 
.68 
Probation Officers 
5 
.85 
Policemen 
10 
1.69 
Teachers and School Nurses 
13 
2.20 
Juvenile Court 
27 
4.58 
Others 
13 
2.20 
Physicians 
9 
1.53 
Employers 
6 
1.02 
Friends and Neighbors 
52 
8.81 
Church Workers, Priests, Pastors 
37 
6.27 
Missions 
11 
1.86 
Miscellaneous 
7 
1.19 
No data 
11 
1.86 
than Boston, there will be need of greater alertness in the less 
important groups shown in our tabulation. The surprisingly 
small number of cases where the needs of the children were 
discovered by church workers may be due to their confidence in 
the ability of alert agents of children’s societies to give all needed 
protection. Friends and neighbors, physicians and even employ- 
ers should feel responsible for the enlistment of needed assistance 
whenever the circumstances are such that there are strong prob- 26 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
abilities that children may suffer from neglect. A complete pre- 
ventive program for the care of children cannot be assured until 
we reach a stage of development where there is a general con- 
sciousness of this community over-parenthood. 
Conditions Found in the Widowers’ Families 
What were the conditions which confronted the expert social 
workers who undertook the difficult task of advising the widowers 
about ways of solving the complex family problems which arise 
when the home mother is gone? The families averaged over 
three children who were under eighteen years of age, in two out 
of five there were more than three, and over a fourth of the 
widowers had five or more children who were still in need of 
motherly care. The fathers were not handicapped by lack of 
familiarity with American conditions, as over a third were born 
in the United States, and many came from Canada or other 
British countries; so that nearly two-thirds of the families had 
standards and backgrounds which may have made it less difficult 
for the social workers to care for their children. (Table 7.) 
The character of the father is the first consideration of the 
social worker who tries to make plans for the broken family. 
When he has the devotion which prompts hard work and self- 
sacrifice, when he is ready to co-operate intelligently in plans which 
promise the best possible care for his children, then it is not im- 
possible to meet even such difficult situations as were found in 
families where there were five to seven young children. But a 
careful examination of the case records shows that nearly half 
of the fathers were quite unfit for their parental duties. A rough 
classification based on descriptive phrases used in the case records 
gives the following results : 
Personal Characteristics of the Widozuers. 
Total number described 547 
Good 162 
Fair 128 
Unsatisfactory 165 
Bad 92 
Typical examples from each of these groups will illustrate 
the complex family situations met by those who try to solve the 
problems of caring for widowers’ children: 
Mike O’Grady, a warm-hearted Irishman who loved de- 
votedly his six children, the oldest of whom was a boy of 13, 
found it hard but not impossible, to care for his little brood with 
his earnings of less than twenty dollars per week. CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
27 
TABLE 7. BIRTHPLACES OF WIDOWERS 
Birthplace 
Widowers of birth- 
place specified 
Number 
Per cent. 
Total 
5071 
100.00 
United States 
198 
39.05 
British Possessions 
120 
23.67 
Canada 
53 
10.45 
Ireland 
33 
6.51 
England, Scotland, Wales 
27 
5.33 
West Indies 
6 
1.18 
Australia 
1 
.20 
European Countries 
173 
34.12 
Italy 
66 
13.02 
Russia 
42 
8.28 
Greece 
13 
2.56 
Other 
52 
10.26 
Asiatic Countries 
16 
3.16 
1 Birthplaces were not reported for 83 fathers. 
Ulysses, a peddler, was determined to keep together his 
family of seven, who ranged in age from the girl of 10 to a baby 
boy less than one year old. He is described as “an unusually 
intelligent type.” Temporary assistance only was necessary until 
he could carry out his plan of bringing his sister from Greece, 
thus re-establishing his home. 
Patrick O’Connor wTas another father who was determined 
to hold on to his family of six children. The oldest boy of 14 
contributed his earnings to the family budget, and the girl of 11 
helped her father do the housework. Temporary assistance was 
given to one child suffering from a fractured leg, but the devoted 
father retained the custody of his children. He is described as 
vigorous and honest in appearance, a fatherly, intelligent man. 
This group of good fathers are spoken of as “affectionate,” 
“devoted,” and the phrases “anxious to do the best he can for his 
children,” or “determined to keep his family together,” occur 
frequently. 
The fathers classified as “fair,” were affectionate, but were 
as a rule less intelligent and capable, and there were many for 
whom defects of character were reported. For example, one 
was described as “a big, easy-going man, intelligent and quick- 
witted, fond of his children, but considers them as playthings 
rather than as responsibilities.” With this attitude it is not sur- 28 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF' SPECIAL CARE 
prising to find his 15-year-old boy a ward of the Juvenile Court. 
Then there was the “gentle-looking, friendly little man who could 
not control his children,” and the father who was “ignorant and 
stubborn,” but had good habits and was conscientious. Numer- 
ous fathers could be commended when they were not drinking too 
much, and there were various types of negative personalities who 
seemed willing to meet their family obligations but whose char- 
acters received little comment because of the absence of well- 
defined traits. However, it was evident that the fathers in the 
“fair” group were assets in the lives of their children, even though 
many failed to meet their paternal obligations without some pres- 
sure or much coaching from the social workers who were en- 
deavoring to care for their children. 
Inability to control their desire for alcoholic drinks was the 
chief curse of the families where the fathers were reported as 
unsatisfactory or bad. This was true of 56 or 3 in 10 of the 165 
“unsatisfactory” fathers and of 41 or nearly half of the 92 bad 
fathers. There were redeeming qualities which made it possible 
for the social workers to co-operate with some of the intemperate 
fathers, who have been classified as “unsatisfactory.” One is de- 
scribed when sober as a “good sort, trustworthy, having good 
judgment, wishing to re-establish his family,” but, unfortunately 
for his five children, he was “under the influence of liquor most 
of the time.” Several were reported to be “kind when sober but 
very abusive when drunk,” and two were “good, steady, work- 
men” though too much under the influence of liquor. However, 
the number (6) of drunkards with these better qualities was 
quite small. 
Such descriptions as “alcoholic, rough, hard type, abusive, 
neglectful, much of a bully”; “drinks, unsteady worker, worth- 
less” ; “until recently a drug addict, drunkard, served 10 years 
in prison, insolent, proud, ran through an inheritance, most un- 
stable” ; “neat, thin, pale, alcoholic, distrustful of everyone”; 
“drinks and has a violent temper”; “excessively alcoholic, selfish, 
indifferent to his children”; “a ‘dandy,’ very careless, unsatisfac- 
tory worker, not reliable, has been a heavy drinker”—suggest 
the extreme difficulties which confront a social worker charged 
with the duty of devising plans for the care of a drunkard’s 
children. 
About half of the unsatisfactory fathers were described as 
“shiftless and lazy,” “lacking in a sense of responsibility,” 
“anxious to shirk responsibility of caring for his children, desirous 
of getting all he can and of giving as little as possible.” This is 
the typical, weak-fibered, pauper type with which all relief workers CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
29 
are familiar. This lack of sense of parental responsibility cul- 
minated in the nine families of this group where the children 
were deserted by their fathers. Five of the eleven fathers charged 
with sexual immorality were said to have made improper advances 
to the women of their households. Mental defects reported for 
seven unsatisfactory fathers varied from great eccentricity or 
nervous disorders to feeble-mindedness. 
The weak or vicious traits of the unsatisfactory fathers ap- 
peared with greater frequency and intensity in the group of 92 
bad fathers. Drunkenness, sexual immorality, degeneracy, bru- 
tality and shiftlessness were so common that it seems probable 
that the 21 deserted families were better off without their pres- 
ence. Over one-fifth of the cases in this group were histories of 
the vigorous interventions for the protection of children made by 
agents of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. 
The following extracts from the case records will show the de- 
grading associations from which the childrens’ agencies rescued 
these unfortunate children left by their mothers’ deaths in the 
custody of bad fathers: 
“High-strung, excitable, coarse, brutal, parsimonious and 
utterly selfish,” summarized the complexly disagreeable character 
of the father of two little girls. 
A policeman called attention to the need of intervention for 
the protection of three dirty, unkempt children who slept with 
their father in a room where he caroused with drunken com- 
panions. 
Three small girls probably suffered no serious loss when 
they were deserted by a “lazy, shiftless, dishonest, irresponsible” 
father who was too fond of drink. 
A court action was necessary to force contributions for the 
support of three little boys from their father who drank heavily 
and was given to lies and immorality. 
A father in jail for the rape of two girls is described as 
“about the vilest man we have ever met as he made a business of 
ruining young girls 10 to 14 years of age.” 
Four children ranging in age from 2 to 7 and described as 
“stupid, under-nourished and neglected” were in charge of an 
illiterate, lazy father of low mentality and brutal habits. 
The father of six children, the oldest of whom found refuge 
in a convent, is described as having some affection for his chil- 
dren when sober but showing terrible brutality when drunk. 
Then he would beat his wife and children and drag them about 
on the floor. Such mistreatment of his wife, when she was ad- 30 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
vanced in pregnancy, resulted in the death of the baby. Her 
cause of death was given as “abortion.” 
Six fathers were unfit custodians of their children because 
of varying degrees of insanity or feeble-mindedness. 
The wickedness and degeneracy of these unworthy parents 
may be said to have culminated in the 5 fathers who committed 
incest with their daughters. 
Economic Status of the Families 
As already pointed out, a little over 10 per cent, of the 
widowers’ families studied were receiving assistance before the 
deaths of the mothers and many of these required help because 
of the heavy expenses of the mothers’ prolonged illnesses. It 
seems probable that not over 5 per cent, of the families would 
have found it necessary to seek or accept outside help if the 
mothers had been present and in normal health. The earnings of 
the fathers would class them with the lower two-thirds of the 
gainfully employed persons of the United States, and the propor- 
tion (42 per cent.) in the small income groups—below one thous- 
and annually—was more than twice that (18 per cent.) in the 
entire population. (Table 8.) It is evident that the majority 
of the widowers belonged to the class of hard working, but less 
competent, wage-earners whose families hover near the poverty 
line and require assistance when emergencies arise. The diffi- 
culties of maintaining family life under such circumstances often 
weaken the mothers so that they succumb more readily to diseases 
or the strains of continuous child-bearing. 
However, it is well known that the low-income portions of 
the population contribute more than their share of the next gen- 
eration. The services of the self-sacrificing and hard-working 
mothers of the poorer families of the community are realized 
more fully when a study of widowers’ experiences reveals how 
impossible it is to maintain the family life without their assistance. 
An examination of the occupations reported by the widowers 
raises questions about the accuracy of the income reports. (Table 
9.) Comparatively few were in occupations requiring no skill; 
then why should their earnings be so low as they reported? 
Nearly half (45 per cent.) were mechanics or operatives in fairly 
well-paid industries. Many of those engaged as teamsters, chauf- 
feurs and street-railway employees, and also the janitors, barbers, 
cooks, salespeople, and even the peddlers, should have had much 
better weekly incomes than those reported to agents of the child- 
caring societies. It seems probable that either the deaths of the 31 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
wives and breaking up of the families removed incentives for 
vigorous and steady work, or that the widowers failed to report 
correctly their earnings because of unwillingness to make large 
contributions for the support of their children. However, the 
difficulties which confront social workers who make plans for 
widowers’ families are revealed by these descriptions of the char- 
acters of the fathers and of their evident economic incapacity. 
TABLE 8. APPROXIMATE WEEKLY EARNINGS OF WIDOWERS 
REQUIRING ASSISTANCE IN THE CARE OF THEIR CHIL- 
DREN. RECORDS TAKEN FROM THIRTEEN SOCIAL 
AGENCIES 
Weekly earnings 
Widowers reporting 
specified weekly 
earnings 
Number 
Per cent. 
Total 
3901 
100 00 
Unemployed 
3.85 
Less than $10 
9 
2.31 
$10-$14 
46 
11.79 
$15-$19 
86 
22.05 
$20-$24 
86 
22.05 
$25-$29 
58 
14.87 
$30-$34 
36 
9.23 
$35 and more 
45 
11.54 
Irregular 
9 
2.31 
1 No data about earnings were given in 200 of the case records studied. 
Summarizing, we find that nearly half of the fathers were de- 
ficient in self-control or industry, and appeared to be quite devoid 
of the unselfish devotion necessary for the rearing of children. 
A high proportion were so degraded that they were unfit com- 
panions for their children, or were even in need of the discipline 
of correctional institutions. The earnings reported by nearly 
nine out of ten of the widowers were scarcely sufficient for their 
own support and could not have maintained in health and decency 
an adult man and three children, which was the average family 
group reported in the 590 case histories. It is evident that con- 
tinuous training and disciplining of the fathers and substantial 
contributions were inseparable from the care of this group of 
widowers’ families. 32 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
TABLE 9. OCCUPATIONS OF WIDOWERS 
Widowers 
Number 
Per cent. 
Total 
590 
100 00 
Manufacturing and Mechanical Industries 
264 
44.75 
Machinists, tool makers and other metal workers 
54 
9.15 
Carpenters, cabinet makers, other wood workers.. 
52 
8.81 
Shoe workers 
25 
4.24 
Tailors, clothing makers 
21 
3.56 
Painters, plasterers, paperhangers 
18 
3.05 
Textile workers 
11 
1.86 
Bakers, makers of food and beverages 
10 
1.69 
Engineers, mechanical and stationary 
9 
1.53 
Bricklayers, stonemasons 
8 
1.36 
Printers 
8 
1.36 
Electricians 
5 
.85 
Foremen and superintendents 
5 
.85 
Other factory operatives 
38 
6.44 
Transportation 
83 
14.07 
Teamsters, expressmen, hack drivers 
24 
4.07 
Chauffeurs, garage men 
19 
3.22 
Station and yard employees 
19 
3.22 
Street railway employees 
13 
2.20 
Dock workers 
5 
.85 
Miscellaneous 
3 
.51 
Public Service 
20 
3.39 
Army and Navy 
13 
2.20 
Miscellaneous 
7 
1.19 
Domestic and Personal Service 
49 
8.31 
Janitors 
14 
2.37 
Cooks and waiters 
13 
2.20 
Barbers 
8 
1.36 
Miscellaneous 
14 
2.37 
Trade 
47 
7.97 
Salesmen 
12 
2.03 
Storekeepers 
8 
1.36 
Peddlers, hucksters 
8 
1.36 
Marketmen 
6 
1.02 
Miscellaneous trade positions 
13 
2.20 
Agriculture, Forestry, Animal Husbandry 
22 
3.73 
Farmers, farm-hands, gardeners 
13 
2.20 
Woodsmen, lumbermen, loggers 
5 
.85 
Fishermen 
4 
.68 
Clerical Workers 
10 
1.69 
Professional Service 
6 
1.02 
Miscellaneous—Laborers 
58 
9.83 
No data 
31 
5.25 
Twenty-eight widowers had a record of two or more occupations. 33 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
Situations Found Within the Families 
An examination of the composition of the families whose 
case histories have been studied, makes it evident that widowers 
who could find any of the simpler, more obvious ways of read- 
justment to their serious loss rarely turned to the social agencies. 
When there were grown daughters who could take the places left 
vacant by the deaths of their mothers, or when there were aunts 
or grandmothers who could be enlisted, then the widowers were 
able to care for their children without outside help. The more 
difficult situations were submitted to the agents of the children’s 
societies, who were called upon to find means of caring for fami- 
lies with but limited financial and personal resources, whose 
fathers frequently were ill-adapted to the responsibilities which 
they had assumed. 
The average number of children was but little higher than 
that of the general population, but there were 231 families, or 
nearly half, in which there were four or more children less than 
18 years old. (Table 10.) Sons or daughters above this age 
are assets rather than liabilities as they could contribute to the 
family budgets or assist in the housework and care of younger 
brothers and sisters. While 10 per cent, of the sons and daugh- 
ters listed were 18 years old or over, the majority of these were 
married and burdened with growing families, or were living away 
from home when their fathers were in need of help in the care 
of younger brothers and sisters. It is safe to assume that the 
children less than 18 years old still were in need of assistance. 
Their distribution is shown in the accompanying table. 
TABLE 10. CHILDREN LESS THAN 18 YEARS OLD FOUND IN 
WIDOWERS’ FAMILIES 
Number of children 
Families having spec- 
ified number of 
children 
Number 
Per cent. 
Total families reported 
574 
100.00 
1 child 
88 
15.33 
2 children 
123 
21.43 
3 children 
132 
23.00 
4 children 
69 
12.02 
5 children 
88 
15.33 
6 children 
45 
7.84 
7 children 
20 
3.48 
8 children and more 
9 
1.57 34 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
Relation of Older Children to Widozvers’ Families 
Twenty of the 162 good fathers had children who were 18 
years old or over, but of this number only four had older daugh- 
ters remaining at home, and two of these were mentally or morally 
defective. The other two did not fill the position of house mother 
in a satisfactory manner because in both families younger sisters 
went astray. Twelve of these superior widowers had older 
sons, but only five could receive assistance from them in caring 
for younger brothers and sisters. The older sons of the other 
seven families had enlisted in the army and navy, had sought 
work in other cities or had married and were burdened with the 
care of growing families. 
A somewhat larger proportion of the 128 fathers classified 
as “fair” were able to retain the assistance of older sons and 
daughters, who were found in nineteen families. Ten older 
daughters, of whom half were employed outside the home, were 
living with their fathers and 11 had left their childhood homes. 
Seven sons, of whom one was married, lived with their fathers, 
and 13 had left home. 
The families of the unsatisfactory and bad fathers had a 
much higher proportion of older children. It does not follow 
that this is characteristic of such families, but rather that widow- 
ers’ families cared for by social agencies are a selected group of 
families suffering from the loss of the mothers. In the families 
of the better type where there is normal affection between the 
members and readiness to cooperate in the solution of family 
problems, younger children are cared for by their fathers and 
older brothers and sisters, and assistance is sought chiefly by 
widowers who have no older members of the family capable of 
giving the needed help. 
The families with drunken, brutal or shiftless fathers were 
lacking in family pride and affection and incapable of united 
efforts to meet the crises resulting from the mothers’ deaths. 
Older sons and daughters showed an eagerness to escape from 
the unhappy associations of their degraded homes. They worked 
or boarded away from their fathers or married at the earliest 
possible opportunity. The records indicate that in the 258 homes 
with unsatisfactory and bad fathers, there were only six daugh- 
ters 18 years old or over who attempted to live with their fathers 
and take the places left vacant by the deaths of their mothers. 
Seven more older daughters presided over homes from which the 
fathers were absent; the father of three of these spent most of 
his time at sea, another father was in jail and three others had CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
35 
deserted. One older daughter was feeble-minded, two were 
victims of unfortunate sex experiences and another is described 
as “run-away and stubborn.” It is evident then that only a 
negligible proportion of the homes with unworthy fathers could 
be cared for by older daughters. 
Experiences with Hired Housekeepers 
“The father is determined to keep his family together,” is the 
phrase used most frequently in describing the family feeling of 
the superior type of fathers. However, a study of these case 
histories proves that a widower of limited income finds it im- 
possible to hire a housekeeper to take the place of the deceased 
wife and mother. Twenty-six of the 290 good or fair fathers 
attempted the employment of housekeepers to assist them in the 
care of their children. The following reports of their experiences 
are typical of the difficulties met with by those seeking this means 
of maintaining family life. 
“Father had three or four housekeepers in two months— 
none was satisfactory.” 
“The housekeeper who had worked for the father made false 
charges of immoral relations between the father and daughter.” 
A household having a stingy father and three children had 
tried several housekeepers, none of whom would stay. 
Workers from the children’s agency found a good house- 
keeper. She did well by the family, but left on hearing about 
the father’s immoral relations with a former housekeeper. 
A widower with a housekeeper whose child lived in the family 
received reports from the neighbors declaring that the woman 
showed great partiality for her own son, but neglected grossly the 
children of the widower. 
One housekeeper was alcoholic and another died in jail; six 
were reported merely as “unsatisfactory.” 
Two widowers discharged their housekeepers because they 
could not meet the heavy expenses of their wasteful management 
of the households. 
One fortunate widower with four children was able to retain 
the same housekeeper for six years. 
One father tried to keep house for his three children, but “lost 
his grip.” He made an unsuccessful effort to find a housekeeper. 
It was found impossible to procure a housekeeper for a 
family of six children, but the two 15 and 16 year-old girls were 
trained to serve as housekeepers. 
Widowers with married female relatives living in the neigh- 36 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
borhood were able to make more satisfactory adjustments, as 
these women could render part-time services without being sub- 
ject to gossip. 
Experiences with housekeepers of the unsatisfactory and bad 
fathers were much like those of the widowers of finer character. 
A smaller proportion (about 6 per cent, compared with 9 per 
cent, of better type) attempted to maintain their family life in 
this way. The following are typical experiences: 
The housekeepers left because the children were unruly. 
During the intervals when there was no help, the fourteen-year- 
old daughter lost her schooling while caring for the household. 
The father employed several housekeepers, but none would 
stay because there were no conveniences. 
Three housekeepers who were poor and wasteful discouraged 
another father who tried to keep his family together. 
Two housekeepers had left one home because the father 
attempted unwelcome familiarities. 
Another father had various housekeepers, but finally gave 
up the home and took rooms for himself and daughter in a lodg- 
ing house. 
The records indicate that satisfactory adjustments with 
housekeepers were made in five of the 258 families with unsat- 
isfactory or bad fathers. One reported merely that the father 
had a good housekeeper; another had a woman coming in to 
work by the day; a third widower was broken of his bad habits 
and supplied with a housekeeper by church workers; a fourth 
housekeeper was a widow with two children who joined the 
widower’s household which was subsidized by a small weekly 
allowance; in the fifth the widower and his two children were 
cared for by a housekeeper having an eleven-year-old boy, and 
the harmonious relations culminated in marriage. 
The fact that only about seven in every hundred of the 
widowers even attempted the maintenance of the household by 
hired help shows their general realization that such plans were 
impracticable. Good and competent women easily could find em- 
ployment in homes where the work would be lighter, compensa- 
tion higher and more secure, and the surroundings more attract- 
ive. Rigid economy in housekeeping expenditures usually was 
necessary in order to keep the household budget within the mod- 
est income available for the family support. It was impossible 
to hire the unselfish devotion which is commonly required from 
wives and mothers in the homes of the poor. 
The crowded quarters, poor neighborhoods, and the disor- 
derly or even filthy conditions found in the homes swarming with CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
37 
children and cared for by busy fathers and school girls frequently 
combined to make situations which would discourage any woman 
with decent standards. The inability of the majority of the 
fathers to maintain environments suitable for growing children 
is shown in the descriptions of such homes as survived the last 
illnesses and deaths of the mothers. Clean, orderly or even 
attractive homes were provided by about four out of seven of 
the good fathers, but the other three were unequal to the task. 
In the group of fair, unsatisfactory and bad fathers, the ratio 
of good homes was smaller, as about half of those classified as 
fair, one-third of the unsatisfactory and less than one-half of 
the bad fathers were able to maintain homes which were clean and 
sanitary, although frequently somewhat disorderly or “cluttered 
up.” A few extracts from descriptions of visitors will show the 
varied surroundings in which they found the widower family 
groups. The following are typical of the better homes: 
“Rather untidy, but the oldest daughter tries to keep the 
home and children clean.” 
“Shabby, but very clean and neat.” 
“A cheery home, the kitchen is a large, sunny room, excel- 
lently furnished and spotless.” 
“The rooms were cluttered up, but not unclean.” 
“The house was remarkably clean considering that no woman 
is in the home.” 
A father of five young children managed to maintain a neat, 
clean home with the assistance of the oldest, a ten-year-old daugh- 
ter. He prepared the breakfasts and dinners and told the chil- 
dren what to have for lunch. A church visitor gave the family 
friendly oversight, and advised with the little housekeeper. The 
last reports said that the children “all did well” in the father’s 
care. 
Mothers often learn to discharge the duties of both parents. 
They go forth into the business or industrial world to earn a 
living and attend to their normal household tasks in the early 
morning, during the evening when they should be resting after 
the day’s work, and on Saturday afternoon and Sunday. But 
fathers willing or capable of such varied labors and sacrifices are 
rare, or at least they were seldom found among these widowers 
described in the case records studied. The majority of those who 
wished to retain and care for their children were like the father 
who is described as “devoted to his children but unwilling to give 
them his personal care.” Fathers of the classes to which the 
widowers belonged are influenced frequently by the customs and 
conventions of their associates. While the women of their house- 38 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
holds may have served as wage-earners before marriage, the men 
have done no housework and frequently cherish a primitive feel- 
ing that masculine dignity is sacrificed when feminine tasks are 
undertaken. A few fathers whose intelligence and devotion over- 
came these prejudices were able to train their children to give 
assistance with the housework. The enlistment of a friendly 
visitor or of neighborly oversight during the day rounds out such 
plans so that a fairly safe and wholesome family life may be 
maintained. 
Descriptions of conditions found in the bad or less satisfac- 
tory homes justified in many cases the prompt removal of the 
children. Not only was their health imperiled by the failure to 
provide proper nourishment and sanitary surroundings, but also, 
in many cases, the environments and associates were such that 
revolting and degrading scenes were being stored in the children’s 
minds. The following extracts from the reports of visitors of 
the children’s agencies indicate the need of better social organiza- 
tion for the purpose of protecting children even from temporary 
exposure to such contaminating environments: 
“Immoral women and men were frequenting the home.” 
“The father, child, housekeeper and her son occupied one 
room, which was uncared for and dirty.” 
“The rooms were poorly furnished, disorderly and very 
dirty.” 
“Deplorable conditions.” The man was keeping house until 
his mother arrived from Russia. 
“In fearful condition, bad odors, and articles of clothing on 
every chair and floor.” 
“The boy and girl were sleeping in the same bed with their 
father.” 
“Three filthy rooms, foul smelling, swarming with flies; 
bread, garlic and onions strewn on the floor.” 
Methods of Caring for the Widowers’ Children 
There were nearly two thousand (1,932) children under 18 
years of age in the 590 widowers’ families studied. (Table 3.) 
The records of supervision and of placements in families are too 
complicated to lend themselves readily to statistical tabulation. 
Many of them testify to the long-suffering patience with which 
the social workers sought to discover means of protecting and 
rearing motherless children. The lack of any generally accepted 
policy in dealing with the widowers’ families was evident in the 
vacillation which was common to the treatment given in all the CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
39 
agencies studied. A more or less lengthy period of experimental 
housekeeping was required to convince many fathers that homes 
have but little capacity for automatic adjustments, or that they 
could not combine their own services and those of the departed 
mother. The willingness or ability of relatives to care for the 
children also was subject to many fluctuations. There were but 
few families in which the plans for the care of the children were 
not subject to changes and five to eight placements were not un- 
common in the more difficult cases. 
Such changes in plans or replacements in some instances may 
have been necessary because the welfare of the growing child 
made desirable different environments, yet they must have pre- 
vented the development of stronger, more permanent social ties. 
There is value for character formation in learning to make ad- 
justments to an accepted family group, even though its members 
have obvious human frailties. A child refuses to accept disci- 
pline in a good spirit when there is a consciousness that it is 
possible to obtain a transfer from the social group whose re- 
quirements may have become irksome. Thus children who had 
been placed in foster homes after periods of wretched living 
with incompetent fathers sometimes caused anxiety by their de- 
sire to return to the undisciplined neglect of their former homes. 
This lingering belief in the possibility of a return to the 
natural family group was not unfounded, for there were over 
three hundred reports of more or less lengthy efforts of the 
fathers and children to keep house together. The natural affec- 
tion of the fathers and the tendency of case workers to observe 
the axiomatic principle which demands the preservation of the 
family, kept such experiments going as long as there were any 
hopes of their success. A few exceptional fathers developed 
skill and intelligent interest in their domestic activities. For 
example, one absorbed eagerly the instruction in dietetics and 
became expert in providing his children with nourishing food at 
minimum cost. 
However successful, these fatherly services were limited by 
the lack of time of the breadwinners of the families. One wid- 
ower devoted his Saturday afternoons and Sundays to a general 
family clean-up. His children started the week in whole gar- 
ments and shining with cleanliness, but usually were dirty and 
somewhat tattered before their father found time for the next 
weekly renovation. Widowers with intelligent and willing daugh- 
ters who could be depended on to carry out plans made for 
brothers and sisters and to develop premature, housewifely skill 
under systematic instruction were most successful in maintaining 40 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
family life, but boys learned to cook and “mind the baby” in five 
families where there were no older girls. 
These efforts of the fathers to keep house with the help of 
their children rarely were successful and frequently were aban- 
doned in favor of foster homes. The premature assumption of 
adult cares is not often possible without loss to the physical and 
spiritual development of the children, even when they seem to 
be able to meet the heavy family responsibilities thrust upon them. 
Younger brothers and sisters do not accept readily the guidance 
of older, and efforts to assert their authority may have unfortu- 
nate effects on the characters of the sisters or brothers who have 
assumed adult cares. Thus the foster mother of one group of 
children refused to keep the oldest girl, because she insisted on 
“bossing” her younger brothers and sisters and there was con- 
tinuous conflict of authority. It is difficult to undo the forcing 
process through which such children have passed and to return 
them to the care-free acceptance of adult guidance which is 
better adapted to their immature natures. An experienced social 
worker in intimate contact with a widower who had shown ex- 
ceptional skill in maintaining family life with the help of his 
children remarked: “After careful consideration I am forced 
to the conclusion that the results are unsatisfactory.” 
Better adjustments were made by widowers who lived near 
relatives or friends who were willing to assist in the care of the 
children. An older married daughter living in an apartment near 
her father’s, close neighbors or relatives who supplied one or more 
daily meals and after-school supervision, or some nearby social 
agency which could feed and safeguard the children during the 
father’s absence, were all utilized by widowers in their efforts to 
hold their families together. 
There were 81 reports of widowers who found boarding 
places for themselves and children. The records stated that in 
39 of these cases the persons supplying board were relatives, 
and in four the widowers’ families moved into the homes of 
neighbors, or invited married couples into their homes. How- 
ever, there are obvious drawbacks to this plan of combining 
families even when there are not many children. 
In reply to the inquiry, “What do these poor Italian laborers 
do with their large families when the mother dies?” a social 
worker said: “They invariably remarry. Relatives, neighbors 
or godparents look after the children during the customary pe- 
riod of mourning, and then the widower seeks a new wife.” 
When such a program can be carried out, the family may be CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
41 
more or less happily rehabilitated, and no assistance is needed 
from children’s agencies. 
Such simple solutions of the family problems were reported 
in only 93 of the 590 case records studied, and it is not surprising 
that the unsatisfactory and bad fathers were much less successful 
in finding new wives than those of better character. Remarriage 
was followed by the prompt discharge of the children to their 
reconstructed homes. Usually cases were closed when this took 
place, but there were a few reports of subsequent visits. The 
new wives made quite favorable impressions and appeared to 
be devoted to the welfare of their stepchildren. 
Assistance from relatives was the first resource enlisted for 
the care of widowers’ children when it was found to be impos- 
sible to maintain the normal family group with the labor of the 
father and older children or with such assistance or supervision 
as could be provided. Sympathy aroused during the emergency 
created by the mother’s illness and death induced her kindred or 
those of the father to care for the children. Of course there 
would be no occasion for appeal to social agencies when these 
relatives were able and willing to continue this assistance. But 
frequently there was reluctance to maintain such service, or a 
desire to have it lightened to the care of one or two children. 
Larger families were scattered in several more or less temporary 
homes or the children shifted between grandparents, uncles, aunts 
and cousins, returning at intervals to live with their fathers when 
they could receive them. Aunts, uncles and cousins, in the order 
named, gave shelter to the largest number, as there were reports 
of 197 placements in their homes, and grandparents with 117 
placements came next in importance. Relatives whose kinship 
was not specified gave assistance 97 times, and older brothers 
and sisters 19. Godparents felt responsible for special care to 
children in 10 families. This large response from the greater 
family group might indicate slight need of assistance from 
strangers, but the help often was temporary or given to only one 
of the group of children for whom provision was necessary. 
It does not follow that widowers as a class receive little or 
unsatisfactory assistance from relatives, but merely that the group 
of widowers in need of the services of social agencies is com- 
posed largely of those who find it difficult or impossible to get 
adequate and continuous help from relatives who are competent 
to care for their children. The grandparents seemed to find it 
particularly difficult to deal with the motherless children of their 
sons or daughters. Often they could not control the younger 
children and failed to understand the dangers from which adoles- 42 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
cent granddaughters needed protection. The older generation, 
particularly those of foreign birth, may find it difficult to under- 
stand or give helpful guidance to modern young persons. 
There were 456 reports of more or less lengthy institutional 
care of children in the widowers’ families. Orphanages or chil- 
dren’s homes were helpful in many emergencies. Where chil- 
dren were found living under conditions which threatened their 
health and morals, immediate removal to such homes prevented 
further injury and made possible careful physical and mental ex- 
aminations necessary for intelligent treatment. A period of train- 
ing in orderly, wholesome habits was desirable for unfortunate 
victims of degrading environments. Without such observation 
and training the children could not be fitted into foster homes, 
or their objectionable habits might give serious offense. Imme- 
diate placement of the children of larger families could not always 
be made, so that institutions were utilized for their temporary 
care. Occasionally a widower wished board for his children 
during a comparatively brief period and gladly utilized an or- 
phanage. Older girls who had gone astray profited by the period 
of intensive training in a special school before being placed in 
free or boarding homes. 
Sixty-two of the widowers’ children proved so seriously 
delinquent or defective that it was found necessary to commit 
them to state juvenile reformatories, or institutions for the care 
of the feeble-minded. About the same number (63) were sent 
to hospitals, homes for cripples or asylums for the insane. There 
were only five reports of children for whom the almshouse was the 
only available refuge during the period of readjustment. 
Foster Homes for Widowers’ Children 
Board in foster homes was the most common method of car- 
ing for the widowers’ children, as the case records reported 583 
placements in homes and the number would be much larger if 
all the transfers and replacements were enumerated. The cost 
of care usually was paid by the father with assistance from 
the social agencies when there were more children than could be 
supported from the fathers’ earnings or when the father suffered 
from irregularity of employment. Only 16 free homes were 
mentioned in the records and but 24 children were adopted. 
Eighteen young persons earned the whole or a part of their ex- 
penses by giving household or farm help. 
Policies for dealing with children in foster homes have been 
so carefully standardized that it seems unnecessary to enter into CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
43 
the details of the case histories, many of which show remarkable 
patience and persistence in dealing with complex family situa- 
tions. Stated briefly, the standards which all of the agencies 
wished to enforce were :x 
I. Careful selection of foster homes, attention being given 
to adaptability to the family standards to which the child had 
been accustomed, and to the educational and recreational oppor- 
tunities of the neighborhoods in which they were located. 
II. Physical examinations and medical treatments were 
provided for children having weakened, poorly developed or dis- 
eased bodies. 
III. Psychological psychopathic examinations were not gen- 
eral but were obtained for children who showed exceptional 
backwardness in schools, personal peculiarities or unusual in- 
ability to adjust themselves to the families in which they were 
placed. 
IV. Agents of the societies endeavored to maintain helpful 
and sympathetic relations with the children and their foster par- 
ents by means of personal visits and correspondence. Replace- 
ments often were necessary when it became evident that the 
foster homes failed to meet the growing needs of the children. 
Supervision was continued until the children returned to their 
re-established families or became entirely self-supporting. 
The mere reading of case records does not permit a critical 
judgment of the extent to which the best standards of child care 
were realized, but a careful examination of many widower family 
histories supplied by the different co-operating agencies leaves 
the writer with the impression that, while there were well-defined 
policies for dealing with the children, there was a general failure 
in the preservation of family ties, or the discovery of methods 
for sustaining or developing the personalities of the widowers. 
It may be that the loss of the mother is one of those social calami- 
ties for which no adequate remedy can be found, yet the questions 
may be raised whether so general a loss of natural family ties 
is necessary, or whether any case work is successful when the 
persons most vitally concerned are condemned to so depressing 
and demoralizing a social outlook as confronted the majority of 
the widowers whose children passed to the custody of the various 
social agencies. 
A little over one-fourth of the good fathers and one-fifth 
of the fair fathers retained the personal custody of their children 
at the time the case records were analyzed but this was true of 
less than one-tenth of the unsatisfactory and of only three per 
1 U. S. Children’s Bureau Standards of Child Welfare, Publication No. 60. 44 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
TABLE 11. RELATION OF THE CHILDREN TO THEIR FATHERS 
AT THE TIME THE CASE RECORDS WERE ANALYZED 
Total 
number of 
Fathers having the personal 
Character of father 
custody of 
their children 
fathers 
Number 
Per cent. 
Total 
.... 590 
92 
15.59 
Good 
.... 162 
45 
27.77 
Fair 
.... 128 
26 
20.31 
Unsatisfactory 
.... 165 
15 
9.09 
Bad 
. . . . 92 
3 
3.26 
No data 
.... 43 
3 
6.97 
cent, of the bad fathers. These differences show the greater 
reluctance to forfeit the advantages of daily contact with good 
fathers, or the greater unwillingness of such fathers to consent 
to separation from their children. But there must be a serious 
social loss when three out of four of the fathers recognized as 
exceptionally devoted and competent, and four out of five of 
those who were just ordinary fathers, but willing to do their duty, 
are deprived of that intimate daily contact with their growing- 
children which is the significant social factor in family life. The 
tendency of the majority of the case records was away from the 
preservation of the natural family group, and it seems probable 
that when all the records are complete the proportion of children 
remaining with their fathers will be less rather than greater. 
Many of the fathers realized fully the importance of main- 
taining the family group. The statement, “— is determined to 
keep his family together,” occurs many times in the case records. 
Touching efforts to realize this desire, even though the social 
agencies found it necessary to place brothers and sisters in dif- 
ferent foster homes, are described in some of the case records. 
For example, one devoted father had his little girl placed in the 
same community where her two brothers were boarded. He 
arranged frequent visits and did all in his power to stimulate 
affectionate interest between members of his separated family 
and finally succeeded in making plans which enabled the three 
children to board in the same foster home. Another father of 
six children devised a systematic visiting about scheme to which 
he devoted his Sundays and holidays. The children in one foster 
home were visited by those gathered from others. Such pil- 
grimages may have served the father’s purpose, but the periodic 
arrival of groups of lively visitors was somewhat trying to the 
foster mothers. CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
45 
However, the majority of the larger families could not profit 
even by such clumsy efforts to retain family affection. Often 
the children were scattered in different communities; one or more 
would be taken by relatives and others might be placed in differ- 
ent foster homes. Since desirable foster homes usually were 
found in rural or suburban communities, visits required an ex- 
penditure of time and money which poor wage-earners could ill 
afford.1 The circumstances under which they met their children 
were apt to give these visits but little value for the promotion of 
family feeling, and it is not surprising that they were often in- 
frequent. 
Families ties were weakened also by differences in standards 
of living between the natural fathers and the foster parents. As 
already pointed out, the widowers who require assistance in order 
to care for their children come from a group of low-wage earners. 
The requirement that they contribute all that they can to the 
support of their children is made by the social agencies and often 
is enforced by court decrees. The margin of income left for the 
support of the father usually is small if not quite inadequate for 
a self-respecting standard of living. Family ties could not be 
preserved or strengthened by occasional visits from a shabby, 
sometimes uncouth father, who had little power of expression 
of such affection as he may have cherished for his children. 
As has already been pointed out, nearly half the fathers had 
serious defects of personal character and many of them were 
drunkards. No children’s agency would accept a foster home 
which would bring children into contact with a man so inferior 
in personal habits as these less desirable fathers, and quite nat- 
urally the foster parents did not encourage frequent visits from 
such men. In fact, it sometimes has been found necessary to 
require the fathers of children placed in foster homes to restrict 
their visits to those for which special permits are obtained from 
the placement agencies. 
Fatherly love expresses itself in plodding services rather than 
in fondling and endearing speeches. The desire to protect or 
gratify wife and children is the most powerful motive for holding 
men faithful to the daily round of monotonous tasks to which 
the average wage-earners devote the larger portion of their wak- 
ing hours. As already pointed out, but few of the widowers were 
engaged in occupations which have intrinsic interest. (Table 9.) 
Only one in a hundred was a professional worker. Nearly half 
1 Some of the case records showed persistent efforts to overcome these 
difficulties. Meetings between the children and parents were arranged at 
the offices of the social agencies, or efforts made to permit outings in the 
company of fathers. 46 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
labored at the highly specialized tasks of manufacturing and 
mechanical industries, and there were many who filled menial 
positions or served as unskilled laborers. Not only were their 
occupations uninteresting and poorly paid, but also frequently 
subject to seasonal unemployment. But little power of imagina- 
tive stimulus can be developed in such lives devoted to monoto- 
nous drudgery. The motive for labor and self-sacrifice must 
be fed by daily contact with the growing children whose lives give 
worth and brightness to the drab and sordid existence of their 
fathers. These widowers who supported children cared for in fos- 
ter homes had forfeited the freedom and self-sufficiency of the 
single man without gaining the satisfactions of family life. Only 
those of exceptional devotion and self-control could find strong 
incentives for steady labor, and many could retain their self- 
respect with difficulty. 
The common failure of the widowers to contribute regularly 
and adequately to the support of their children is explained by 
this loss of personal contact and affection. Since only one in six 
of the fathers retained the personal custody of his children, de- 
pressing conditions were developed in the large majority of the 
families. Efforts to collect by court decree were not apt to im- 
prove the family morale, and were ineffectual when there were 
recurring periods of seasonal unemployment which tax the en- 
ergy and ingenuity even of those most eager to find work. It 
is not surprising that 30 of the weaker and more selfish fathers 
deserted their children. 
Good case work has been defined as “those processes which 
develop personality through adjustments consciously effected, in- 
dividual by individual, between men and their social environ- 
ment.”1 If the children of the widowers had been full orphans 
we might concede that there was considerable success in meeting 
the requirements of good case work, but since over half of them 
had competent fathers, we must conclude that there was a general 
failure to realize this ideal. Insufficient attention was given to 
retaining for the fathers the social stimulus necessary for sus- 
taining and developing their personalities; and, since the fathers 
normally were the most important social influence in the lives of 
their children, conditions which weakened them reacted ad- 
versely on the children. It is hoped that a realization of the na- 
ture and magnitude of this unsolved problem of child care may 
stimulate the devoted workers of child-caring agencies to efforts 
for establishing better standards of treatment for this group of 
difficult clients. 
1 Richmond, Mary E., What is Social Case Work? pp. 98-99. CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
47 
Experimentation and standardization by private agencies fol- 
lowed by general adoption and by support from public funds is 
an established sequence in the development of social betterment 
activities. A more definite and purposeful focusing of this proc- 
ess on the problems of widowers’ children may be promoted by 
a summary of the methods of care which came nearest to meeting 
the requirements of good case work. 
Remarriage need not be considered since it takes the family 
out of the group which we are studying and since social workers 
cannot assume the role of matchmakers. One who urged this 
solution upon a bewildered Italian widower who was determined 
to keep his large family of young children, was embarrassed 
when he inquired about her family ties and showed his apprecia- 
tion of her peculiar qualifications for the role of stepmother. 
Certainly hasty remarriage for the purpose of obtaining a house- 
keeper who will work without wages and cannot readily quit 
the job is not to be recommended as a means of maintaining fam- 
ily life. Occasionally a foreign-born widower succeeds in luring 
a capable woman from his birthplace, but as a rule a poor 
widower with a large family has but slight chance of finding a 
worthy substitute for the mother of his children. 
There were three other plans which maintained the daily 
companionship needful for the family life of father and children: 
(1) Father and children boarded together, or lived with another 
family having a woman housekeeper. (2) Housekeeping, the 
father and children doing the work with some assistance or su- 
pervision from visitors. (3) Responsibility for supervising and 
feeding the children assumed by a neighboring relative, friend 
or institution, but the father and children left together when he 
could be at home. 
The old-fashioned boarding house is becoming obsolete, and 
the use of a cheap lodging house with restaurant meals is impos- 
sible when there are several young children. Occasionally board 
can be found with a woman who will assume responsibility for the 
supervision of the children during the absence of the father. 
The arrangement then resembles that of the combined families. 
Such group living is apt to bring many conflicts of authority and 
interests, but is sometimes a satisfactory arrangement, when 
neither family has many children, when the two men of the house- 
hold are congenial, or when the woman in charge is a relative 
of the widower. 
The second and third plans were utilized as means of holding 
together larger families. When there are girls or boys of suffi- 
cient age and intelligence to make it possible for them to assume 48 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
some responsibility for the supervision of younger brothers and 
sisters and for the maintenance of household activities during 
the absence of the fathers, it is possible to organize the family 
life so that the home can be maintained. As already pointed 
out, this may place an undue strain on older children, but in 
many cases this is a lesser evil than the rupturing of family ties. 
When the third plan supplements the second, all the essential 
needs of the widower’s family may be met. An older child, 
however intelligent and faithful, is not fully competent to control 
and care for younger brothers and sisters. There should be a 
readily accessible adult who could be appealed to for assistance 
and who would organize and supervise the household activities 
of the widower and his children. These conditions were met 
when widowers had older married daughters, other relatives, 
or reliable, married women friends who had apartments in the 
same building. These adult women did a part of the housekeep- 
ing and cared for the children during the absence of the fathers. 
In one family the children were fed at the table of this friend, 
but spent evenings with their father. 
Such arrangements as these suggest the possibilities of a 
new form of the activities first organized by Octavia Hill. Why 
not have a tenement or apartment house reserved for the families 
of widowers? A common dining room and supervised play dur- 
ing the hours after school would insure wholesome living con- 
ditions, and personal consultation with the father might educate 
him to an appreciation of such standards of child care as are 
commonly developed when widows’ pensions are efficiently ad- 
ministered.1 
The expense of such a plan would be greater than could be 
met by the average of the widowers with large families who sub- 
mit their problems to children’s agencies. But it would not re- 
quire a greater expenditure of services and money than what is 
now given when the children are boarded in the homes of 
strangers and supervised by placement agents. There can be 
no question but that such a plan would stimulate the fathers to 
greater exertions in order to earn the money necessary to supply 
their children’s needs. As in the case of the widows, parent and 
children would be developed together and the powerful incen- 
tives supplied by these fundamental social ties would be enlisted 
for the stimulation of worthy parenthood in the fathers. 
When foster homes are the only means available for the care 
of the children, then more attention could be given to systematic 
1 Nesbitt, Florence. Standards of Public Aid to Children in Their Own 
Homes, U. S. Children’s Bureau Publication No. 118. 49 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
plans for bringing the children and father together under circum- 
stances which would make possible an unembarrassed growth of 
sympathetic relations. We found no record of definite efforts 
to prepare older daughters for the responsibilities of re-estab- 
lished households.1 If both father and children anticipated a 
reunion at some future date and were assisted in making plans 
for the realization of such a goal, there would be less loss of 
family feeling than seemed to be common when children were 
reared in foster homes. As it was, they usually suffered a loss 
of strong personal relations which play so important a part in 
preparing the individual for happy, helpful, social activities. 
There was but little evidence of the development of affectionate 
ties between the children and their foster parents; indeed the 
less stolid children were often restless and discontented, so that 
they quickly wore out their environments and replacements fre- 
quently became necessary. 
DISCUSSIONS OF FINDINGS BY REPRESENTATIVES 
OF CHILDREN’S AGENCIES 
The suggestion that more definite efforts be made to reach 
mothers of families with instruction about methods of preventing 
the spread of common infectious diseases and the hygiene of 
pregnancy and childbirth was heartily endorsed. 
Agreement was less complete when consideration was given 
to the possibility of forestalling the demoralization of the widow- 
ers’ households by friendly visits shortly after the deaths of the 
mothers. An experienced worker declared that even a tactful 
and kindly visitor might fail to establish a right to make sugges- 
tions in many of the families. It was thought, however, that 
school visitors would have a natural and acceptable approach, 
and might be able to do something to safeguard the interests of 
the children. 
“Greater emphasis should be given to the fact that replace- 
ment in foster homes is often prompted by efforts to meet more 
fully the needs of the growing child,” declared one member of 
the group. 
“We might well give more attention to keeping the children 
in touch with their fathers,” said another. 
“It is true that when the children are boarded in foster homes 
for several years the fathers are apt to lose interest, and often 
fail to make regular payments for the support of the children,” 
testified the director of one of the largest children’s agencies. 
1 The failure of such an effort, because of the early marriage of the 
well-trained daughter, was reported during the discussion of this report. 50 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
Fuller information was desired about the history of children 
who had been placed with relatives. Regret was expressed that 
there was not a more general tendency to seek expert advice 
about the care of children, even though no financial aid was re- 
quired. Some agencies found that relatives welcomed supervi- 
sion and preferred that the children’s agency retain legal guar- 
dianship when the character of the father made it probable that 
controversies might arise. 
There was no general endorsement of plans for remedying 
the weaknesses of the present treatment of widower cases. The 
early marriages of daughters of wage-earners discourages efforts 
to prepare them for taking charge of the re-established house- 
holds of their fathers. It is difficult to find suitable opportunities 
for boarding children with their fathers, and conflicts of authority 
seem unavoidable. The plan for a widower apartment house 
was not received with enthusiasm, but rather with the concession 
that it might be worth a trial. The representative of the Family 
Welfare Society was confident that fully half of the fathers would 
resent vigorously any efforts to make changes in whatever family 
regimes they were maintaining. PART II 
THE NEGLECTED CHILDREN OF WIDOWERS, OF 
ARRESTED PARENTS, AND OF FAMILIES BROKEN 
BY SEPARATION, DESERTION OR DIVORCE 
STUDIES BASED ON CASE RECORDS OF THE MASSA- 
CHUSETTS SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION 
OF CRUELTY TO CHILDREN 
MADE BY 
ANNA ELY MOOREHOUSE, BARBARA H. WRIGHT 
AND SOPHIA C. GLEIM, GRADUATE STUDENTS 
OF SIMMONS COLLEGE, WHO WERE HOLDING 
FELLOWSHIPS IN THE RESEARCH DE- 
PARTMENT OF THE WOMEN’S EDUCA- 
TIONAL AND INDUSTRIAL UNION 
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 
1919-1920 CHAPTER I 
THE NEGLECTED CHILDREN OF WIDOWERS 
Anna Ely Moorehouse 
The children of widowers with small incomes are among 
those in greatest danger of neglect.1 There is no loss of the 
means of support as in the case of widows, but they suffer seri- 
ously from the lack of personal care and supervision, as the 
father’s income is rarely sufficient to provide a competent house- 
keeper. Out of 2,350 cases cared for by the Massachusetts So- 
ciety for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, from the first 
of November, 1917, to the first of November, 1918, 189 or 8 
per cent, dealt with widows and 229 or 9.7 per cent, with widow- 
ers. Not only was there a larger number of widowers with neg- 
lected children, but it was more difficult to find means of caring 
for their children. The widow’s situation can be greatly bene- 
fited by mere economic relief, but the widower needs, in addition, 
competent and devoted assistance in caring for his motherless 
children. 
The Sources of Information 
The present study of neglected children of widowers is based 
on 500 case records of families cared for by the M. S. P. C. C., 
between 1914 and 1919, inclusive. These records fall into two 
groups, 365 which had been analyzed by officers of the Society, 
and 135 analyzed in the same manner for this study. Of the 
latter, 100 were studied intensively. They differed somewhat 
from the other 400 in that they were nearly all recent cases. 
This partially accounts for the facts that over 50 per cent, of the 
cases studied intensively were opened and closed within the same 
year, and only about 20 per cent, were under the Society’s care 
over five years. 
Since this study is limited to cases of the M. S. P. C. C., 
1 In 1917 the Children’s Aid Society of Pennsylvania reported that 98 
or 15.3 per cent, of the 640 children cared for by the Society came from 
widowers’ families. (36th Annual Report of the Children’s Aid Society of 
Pennsylvania, for the year 1917.) 
In England and Scotland during the years 1887 to 1891, 14 per cent, of 
the children received into industrial schools were motherless; in Baden, 
Germany, in 1891, 17.7 out of each 100 children received into correctional 
schools were from widowers’ families. (Bonger, Criminality and Economic 
Conditions, 490.) 
Of 741 children brought into the Chicago Juvenile Court in 1903-1904, 
9.8 per cent, of the hoys and 20.4 per cent, of the girls were motherless. 
(Breckenridge and Abbott, The Delinquent Child and the Home, 92.) 54 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
it does not show the difficulties and problems with which all 
widowers have to deal, but it does point out the forms of neglect 
and the characteristics of an important group whose children 
are neglected. 
Significant Family Data 
Over 38 per cent, of the parents whose birthplaces were re- 
ported were native born. A slightly smaller per cent, were born 
in the British possessions, 19 per cent, of these coming from 
Ireland. With the exception of one Chinese and one Australian 
father, the remaining 24 per cent, were born in the various Euro- 
pean countries; the largest single group of these was the Italian, 
it being almost 9 per cent. (Table 1.) 
Three out of 'five (59 per cent.) of the fathers and mothers 
were Catholic. (Table 2.) This is a larger proportion than one 
would expect when looking at the table of birthplaces, and prob- 
ably indicates that a considerable number of those born in the 
United States were the second generation of people who came 
from Catholic countries. Less than 2 per cent, were Hebrews, 
although the number of Jews in the population is large. 
Most of the widowers were in occupations requiring only 
a small amount of skill and training. Laborers and factory op- 
eratives were the two largest groups, numbering 78 and 80, re- 
spectively. (Table 3.) The fact that wage-earners in the man- 
ufacturing industries in Greater Boston averaged less than $800 
annual income in 19171 shows what a small amount most of these 
widowers had with which to support their families. 
In 89 or 17.8 per cent, of the families there were 3 children. 
This is the modal group, but 16.4 per cent, had 5 children, while 
18.2 per cent, had 6 children or more. The average number 
of children in each family which had to be supported by the low 
wages of the widower was 3.7. (Table 5.) 
There are two periods when a mother’s care is most neces- 
sary to the welfare of children; in their younger years they are 
dependent on her for their physical welfare, and then when the 
adolescent years are reached their moral welfare depends upon 
the mother’s sympathy and guidance. This is particularly true 
of the girls who need a large amount of supervision when 12 to 
16 years old. Only a small proportion of the widowers’ children 
belonged to the first group, 10 per cent, being 4 years of age 
or under. Almost one-third of the children in widowers’ families, 
however, were found in the second age group, that is, between 
1 Massachusetts Statistics of Manufacturers, 1917, p. 30. CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
55 
the ages of 13 and 18.1 At this time the influence of the school 
is forfeited since this is the age when the children go to work. 
(Table 4, Chart IV.) Juvenile delinquency develops most fre- 
quently during this period as is shown by the Chicago Juvenile 
Court records. Of 14,183 delinquent children brought into the 
court, 22.0 per cent, of the boys and 26.3 per cent, of the girls were 
fifteen years old. The abrupt change from school to work, the 
nervous strain resulting from the new activities and longer hours, 
coming as they usually do at a critical period of physical devel- 
opment, would be hard for any child, but it is especially difficult 
for one who is deprived of a normal home life. In addition, the 
father is apt to consider careful supervision unnecessary. 
Case I. An illustration of a situation which might easily 
have led to the girl’s downfall was that of Jennie . She 
was fifteen and, at the time the family was reported to the So- 
ciety, her mother had been dead several years. Mrs. , who 
had been a close friend for some time, attempted some supervi- 
sion. Jennie’s brothers called this woman “mother” and went 
to her house every day after school, but Jennie refused to have 
anything to do with her after a remonstrance against standing 
on street corners visiting with men acquaintances. Jennie, who 
spent on her clothes most of the money received from two 
brothers in France, made herself very conspicuous by her flirta- 
tions with conductors and motormen. Her father was a good 
man, but felt no responsibility for his children, and usually spent 
his evenings away from home. Finally, an agent of the Society 
visited the family and succeeded in convincing Jennie of the 
error of her ways. 
A larger number of housekeepers was found in the families 
of widowers than in those of arrested or of divorced, separated 
or deserting parents. The housekeepers, however, whom widow- 
ers were able to get were often distinct menaces to the families. 
Case II. This danger is illustrated by the case of Mr. , 
who had been married twice. At the time the case was reported 
to the M. S. P. C. C., he had a housekeeper with whom he had 
immoral relations. Edward, the oldest boy, aged 15, said that 
the language used and the actions performed by his father and the 
housekeeper were indecent. The schoolmaster also told of the 
way in which Edward and the other children were treated at 
home and of the obscene acts committed in their presence. Ed- 
1 This differs from the age distribution of widowers’ children cared 
for by other social agencies. (Table 3A of previous report.) The adoles- 
cent groups were smaller than those of children 4 to 12 years old. Evi- 
dently the M. S. P. C. C. intervened frequently for the prevention of 
delinquency.—L. E. 56 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
ward was examined by Doctor Healy, who reported him as “years 
older than he should be in regard to sexual knowledge.” 
Case III. Another case shows the fate of a widower’s 
family in charge of a slattern. Emma , the housekeeper, 
and Edward, the child, were found at the family home, which 
was a small, unfinished house of five rooms, set in a disorderly 
yard. The house was filthy, with soiled clothes and rags lying 
around on the floors. The housekeeper, who was a dirty, lazy- 
looking woman, said that she was married but separated from 
her husband. Evidently the relations between her and the widow- 
er were immoral, for the father acknowledged that conditions 
were very wrong but he declared, “It is impossible in these times 
to engage a housekeeper who is a moral woman.” 
More relatives were living with the widowers than with the 
arrested or separated parents. In a few families the relatives 
were a danger, but in most instances they were a help to the 
father in caring for his children. Female relatives who were 
assisting in the care of the children were found in 71 of the 86 
families in which relatives were present. 
Lodgers were found in forty of the 500 families studied. 
The presence of male lodgers is a decided risk for a young girl 
when there is no mother or older woman in the house, but such 
a situation was found in only 13 instances. 
In over one-half of the cases, however, no one was found 
living with the family, and the father and children were left 
after the mother’s death to work out their own salvation as best 
they could. 
The characteristics of the members of the widowers’ families 
seem to indicate that they belonged to a more normal group than 
either the arrested or the divorced, separated or deserting parents. 
(Tables 6-A, 6-B and 7.) Nevertheless, it must be remembered 
that the number given as mentally and physically defective is an 
under- rather than an over-estimate due to the fact that such 
characteristics were not reported unless there had been formal 
examinations. This fact also accounts for the larger amount of 
defectiveness in the children, as it was much easier to have the 
children examined than their parents. Nine per cent, of the 
mothers were reported as having had tuberculosis and probably 
the proportion was even greater, as this disease was one of the 
most common causes of their deaths. 
In many cases the father was a dependable, hard-working 
man, who was fond of his children and wished to keep his family 
together, but it was impossible for him to work and to care for 
his children at the same time. CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
57 
Case IV. An illustration was a family where six children, 
the oldest of whom was eleven, were left motherless at the time 
of the influenza epidemic. The father had tried unsuccessfully 
a number of housekeepers. Three attempts were made by social 
agencies to place the children in a family. The father would 
promise faithfully to give the children up, but each time when 
the day arrived he could not make up his mind to part with them. 
The father’s work kept him away from three o’clock in the after- 
noon until one in the morning. The children stayed out on the 
streets late at night and handled kerosene lamps when alone. 
Social workers were convinced that lack of supervision was a 
danger to the health and even to the lives of these children and 
an agent of the Society finally persuaded the father that it was 
necessary for him to give them up. 
The Neglect of the Children 
In 38 out of 100 cases the families were reported to the 
M. S. P. C. C. by public agencies, the most common of these 
being school officials. (Table 8.) This shows that there is 
already a certain feeling of responsibility on the part of the State, 
which needs, however, to be extended and organized so that all 
neglected children will be given prompt care and protection. In 
30 cases charitable or religious agencies and in 17 cases relatives 
reported widowers’ children in need of attention. In a number 
of instances in which the relatives complained, it was found upon 
investigation that the difficulties were due to religious differences. 
Protestant and Catholic grandmothers sometimes made mutual 
complaints of improper treatment or unsuitable home conditions 
while struggling to gain the custody of grandchildren. 
In 82 of the 100 cases studied intensively, the children had 
not been seriously injured at the time the family was reported. 
This indicates that, in Massachusetts at least the social agencies 
are well organized and come into the majority of cases soon 
enough to help. 
Physical neglect was the most common complaint in each of 
the three types of families studied. (Tables 9, 10 and 11, Chart 
V.) It is natural that this should be given as the most common 
form, as it is the most easily detected. Physical cruelty was 
reported in less than 5 per cent, of the widowers’ cases, showing 
that risks were due to failure to maintain proper standards of 
care rather than to positive mistreatment. However, much moral 
neglect and lack of supervision were reported. In most cases the 
former meant contact with drunkenness and sexual immorality. 58 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
Lack of supervision is the sort of thing that one would expect to 
find in a widower’s family. 
Case V. An example of this was the case of E , whose 
mother died about six months before the case was reported. The 
paternal home was scantily furnished and very dirty. One son 
was living with his father, the other son, E , had left home 
to stay with his chum. Later he ran away to New York, but 
was brought back to Boston, declared delinquent by the Juvenile 
Court and sent to Shirley. It is not probable that this boy would 
have been so difficult to manage if he had received more supervi- 
sion and better care at home. 
Girls are in even greater need of this supervision than boys. 
The case of Emma illustrates the danger met by a mother- 
less girl. 
Case VI. In the South Station, Jennie and Emma 
were seen to attract the attention of a sailor and a civilian. Both 
girls were conspicuously dressed in extremely short dresses, had 
bleached hair, and a great deal of powder and paint. After much 
persuasion the girls agreed to go to the hospital for examination, 
and Emma was found to be diseased. When the home was 
visited, Emma was there keeping house for her father and the 
other children. She acknowledged that she had been indiscreet 
in her search for pleasure, but said that she had talked with her 
priest, had started going to church, and had promised to be a 
good girl and worthy of the mother whose memory she devotedly 
loved. 
This girl needed personal care and interest in her desires 
and ideals. While the absence of the mother1 was the chief 
cause, it was not the only explanation of the neglect of these 
children. In 32 of the 100 cases and 280 of the 500, drunken- 
ness on the part of the father was an added difficulty. (Tables 
7 and 9.) In some instances the sorrow and trouble resulting 
from the mother’s death caused the man to drink, which in turn 
made matters go from bad to worse. 
Case VII. This case shows the need of supervision, espe- 
cially during the period of readjustment. The father grew dis- 
couraged in trying to care for his six children after his wife’s 
death. He took to drinking, lost his job and then the children 
sufifered because of lack of food and clothing. The case was re- 
ported to the Society and through its efforts the father was 
started again, but not until it was too late to save the oldest girl, 
who had become pregnant. The father, when interviewed later, 
1 One of the teachers of the Continuation School in speaking of her work 
said: “These cases of children without mothers are terrible. A bad mother 
is better than no mother at all.” CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
59 
said that he was not drinking and was making good money. He 
admitted that it was largely his fault that Mary got into trouble. 
Had there been some means of reporting the family to an 
agency when the mother died, and had this agency supervised 
the family and helped the father when he was trying to readjust 
his life, these troubles might have been averted. 
A lack of personal interest or of a sense of responsibility 
toward his children was another characteristic found in a num- 
ber of the fathers. Such a father was that of the D case 
w'hich came to the attention of the Society through the truant 
officer. 
Case VIII. The agent went to the house where Gertrude 
lived with her cousin, Mrs. D . The mother died at the time 
of the child’s birth and the father then placed her with his cousin. 
Mrs. and Gertrude lived in one room, which was dark and 
dirty, and they were both unwashed. Mrs. D stated that 
Gertrude was too superior to go either to the sisters’ school or 
to the public schools and that she was teaching the child. Upon 
further inquiry this was found to be untrue. Gertrude was then 
taken to the court and declared neglected. The Home for Desti- 
tute Catholic Children, in whose care she was placed, transferred 
her to a very nice family. These people became very fond of 
her and assumed her guardianship. Although the father was 
sending his cousin ten dollars a week for taking care of his 
daughter, he evidently had no personal interest in her. He never 
knew that the child had been removed from Mrs. D ’s care 
until he was notified that the latter had been placed in an insane 
asylum. 
In some cases the father not only took no personal interest 
in his children, but also shifted the financial care onto someone 
else. In a good many of these low-grade families, when the 
mother died the one thing that held the family together was gone 
and the father lost all sense of responsibility toward his children. 
Case IX. An example was the case of Mr. M and his 
four children. Mrs. M , wife of George, the paternal uncle, 
reported in March, 1910, that she had cared for Mary and James 
since October, when the father went to the hospital. The chil- 
dren had been left in charge of a drunken housekeeper who soon 
deserted her post. The father then agreed to pay the aunt two 
dollars a week for each child with her, but up to March he had 
paid her a total of twelve dollars, although he was earning $13.50 
a week. Her burdens were increased in February, when the 
father sold his furniture and turned out the other two boys, who 
came to her for care. 60 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
The Society took the case to court and the father was found 
guilty of neglect of minor children and sentenced to three months 
in the House of Correction. 
A characteristic complaint coming to the Society was: 
. “Miss G asks that we compel the father to support his 
daughter, who has been in the Home some time. The father 
owes over $125.” 
When the mother dies, friction, which she is usually able to 
keep in check, increases. Moreover, if the oldest daughter tries 
to keep house for the family, she is at a disadvantage, as the 
other children do not feel that they must obey her and, with no 
one at the head of the household, the family is very apt to fall 
apart. The difficulties are well illustrated by the following case: 
Case X. John, aged 19, and Anna, aged 20, said that they 
had talked over plans for renting and furnishing a tenement. 
They had been somewhat discouraged before the agent’s call, as 
they hesitated to go into debt when their father was unreliable. 
However, they finally agreed to get a tenement where Mary 
could keep house for them all and the income of the three chil- 
dren who were working would be sufficient to run the establish- 
ment. 
A week later the father, Anna and George were at home. 
They had a very clean, newly-painted tenement of four rooms 
and bath. They had not much furniture as yet but were taking 
a great deal of interest in the place and intended to add to their 
stock in the near future. The father had not been drinking for 
the past two weeks and vowed that he would leave liquor alone. 
A month later another call was made. The family were all 
at home. The father was drunk and a good deal of friction had 
developed. The father said that he found it difficult to control 
any of the children because they did not feel toward him as they 
should towards the father and head of the family. He admitted 
that he was drinking a little Saturday evenings, but stoutly 
maintained that this was not the chief reason for the difficulties 
in the home, which arose principally because there were too 
many would-be bosses and no one in control. 
About four months later Anna said that she was ready to 
give up the housekeeping, as the efforts to maintain a satisfac- 
tory home had failed. The father was drinking again and said 
that he would not give up his pay for the family. James was 
truant and was “going bad.” There was constant friction in 
the home and she could not endure it longer. 
Seven months later in the court the school officer reported 
that the home had been broken up about two months before. CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
61 
The father and James were boarding with Mrs. D , a place 
which he did not consider proper for the child. In view of this 
and the fact that James had been truant from school, the court 
was asked to commit him to the Middlesex Training School. 
The father told the agent that Anna was working in a fac- 
tory; John was working and boarding; George had been com- 
mitted about two months before for “breaking and entering.” 
He would be released in about a month and was assured of work. 
Mary was working for a dentist, with whom she was living. 
The father explained that there was such friction in the home 
that it had seemed best to break it up. 
Immorality on the part of the father increases the prob- 
ability of neglect of the children. Sexual immorality was re- 
ported for thirteen out of one hundred widowers, but only for 
ten out of one hundred fathers in arrested families. The smaller 
number given in the latter group is probably due to the fact that 
this type of immorality would be more likely to be looked for 
and detected in widowers’ families. 
Sexual immorality was a factor in the following case: 
Case XI. The grandmother lived with the four children. 
They had three rooms, which were poorly furnished but neat 
and well kept. The grandmother was of good appearance. She 
said that she had been living there ever since the mother died, 
about six months before, that soon after her death the father be- 
gan drinking rather heavily and going about with Mrs. G . At 
one time the father went away with Mrs. G and was gone 
for four weeks, leaving the grandmother only ten dollars. He 
returned home for a short time and then left again to live with 
Mrs. G , this time giving the grandmother nothing for the 
support of the children. 
The case was brought into court by the M. S. P. C. C. The 
father was sentenced to the House of Correction for six months 
for non-support and eight months for illegal cohabitation. He 
appealed the case and the sentence was repealed. This experi- 
ence, however, either frightened him or awakened him to the 
need of meeting his responsibilities, because he stopped drinking 
and began to work regularly for the support of his family. 
Only one case of feeble-mindedness and insanity of the 
fathers was reported out of the hundred records studied inten- 
sively. (Table 7.) Neglect of the children would be expected 
in each of these instances. Subnormal mentality and poor stock 
are given as 2 per cent, and 4 per cent., respectively, and a lack 
of a sense of responsibility as 6 per cent. When drunkenness, 
sexual immorality and a lack of a sense of responsibility, which 62 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
are not always signs of degeneracy, are excluded, degeneracy 
was only shown in 9 per cent, of the fathers. This seems to 
indicate a normal group. 
Activities of the M. S. P. C. C. While Caring for the Widowers’ 
Families 
The work of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention 
of Cruelty to Children is mainly protective and disciplinary. The 
Society co-operates closely with the various social agencies and 
transfers to them activities other than protection and discipline. 
Preventive rather than punitive aspects of the work are stressed. 
The desire of the Society is to keep the family together. When 
it becomes necessary to separate the family, however, the children 
are turned over to a child-placing agency. 
Court actions were used in 234 of the 500 cases. Fifty-two 
of the actions were for the discipline of the parents. This is 
a much smaller number than in the other two types of families; 
104 of the actions in the cases of divorced, separated or deserting 
parents, and 157 in the cases of arrested parents, were for pa- 
rental discipline. The smaller number of widowers in need of 
court discipline is another indication that they belonged to a 
more normal group. (Table 13.) 
In 30 of the hundred families studied intensively the M. S. 
P. C. C. handled the cases without assistance from other agen- 
cies, but in 45 it was necessary to call in disciplinary agencies. 
The children in 21 families where shelter or temporary care 
were given usually were sent back to their own homes or to the 
homes of relatives. Taking the children away for a time often 
made the father more attentive to his obligations, as is shown 
by the following case: 
Case XII. A family was visited and the three children were 
found getting their noon-day meal in a rather crude way. The 
mother was dead and these children had been taking care of them- 
selves for six years. They tried to do the best they could, ap- 
parently, but this was not up to the standard of care which chil- 
dren should have. The filthy bedding had not been washed for 
months—possibly years. The sanitary arrangements were very 
poor and might be productive of diseases. Complaints were made 
by the M. S. P. C. C. against the children as neglected and against 
the father for neglect. The children were placed in the care 
and custody of the Home for Destitute Catholic Children. 
The father then got a housekeeper and asked to have his 
children returned. The home was again investigated and found CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
63 
to be in good condition. The housekeeper seemed to be a capable 
woman so that it was decided to return the children. 
In 27 of the 100 families it was necessary to enlist home- 
finding or child-placing agencies, notwithstanding the Society’s 
desire to keep the families together. In a number of instances 
the families had already been broken up before they came under 
the care of the M. S. P. C. C. Under these circumstances the 
families rarely were brought together again. In 24 cases, aid 
and training in the home were given, and in 22, agencies were 
enlisted by the M. S. P. C. C. to care for the health of the chil- 
dren. 
In 21 of the 100 cases and in 68 of the 500, the M. S. P. 
C. C. disposed of the cases by placing the children in institutions. 
(Tables 14 and 15.) In the other 79 of the 100 the children 
were cared for in families. In 41 instances the children were 
either retained in or returned to their own families and in 29 
they were cared for by relatives, making a total of 70 cases in 
which it was not necessary to call in strangers. This illustrates 
the policy of the Society of keeping families together or at least 
of keeping children out of institutions. The larger number of 
relatives caring for the children in the widowers’ families than 
in the families in which the parents had been arrested or in which 
there had been divorce, separation or desertion, shows that there 
was a greater feeling of family responsibility. 
In 33 of the 100 reports studied intensively it was estimated 
that the purpose for which the family was brought under the 
M. S. P. C. C. was accomplished. In 28 there was improvement, 
in 14 the cases were transferred to other agencies, and in 17 
no definite action was taken. Various reasons were given for 
this failure to act, such as lack of evidence or change in condi- 
tions due to the remarriage of the father or the return of an 
older daughter. In only 8 of the cases was failure reported be- 
cause the plans were blocked or did not work out. (Table 16.) 
Conclusions 
In some cases the families must be broken up, but, both for 
the sake of the children and of the father, this should never be 
done unless it is absolutely necessary. The father needs to 
shoulder his responsibilities, and the children need as nearly 
normal a home life as possible. The cases studied indicate that 
breaking up the family led the father to abandon his family 
responsibilities. If he could get a relative or neighbor to board 
his children it often was not long before he was paying very 64 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
little or nothing for their support. The problem of holding the 
family together after the mother’s death is a very difficult one 
and often impossible of solution. 
Young children under school age may be cared for in the 
day nursery; there remains the problem of proper supervision 
for the children of school age. It might prove a help if the 
schools undertook an extension of the day nursery idea, making 
all those children who need it report after school for an hour or 
two of supervised play. 
According to the records of the Chicago Juvenile Court the 
greatest amount of delinquency occurs at the age of fifteen.1 
Eleven and two-tenths per cent, of the children in the widowers’ 
families studied were 15 and 16 years of age. (Table 4, Chart 
IV.) The extension of the school age from 14 to 16 would 
help these children through this critical period. The nervous 
strain would not be so great in school as when at work and the 
teacher and school visitor would still have a hold on them. 
Supervision during the period of readjustment after the 
wife’s death is one of the most necessary things in the solution 
of the problem of the widower’s family. Much discouragement 
and lowering of standards might be averted if the widower had 
some help at this time. In addition, constant instead of casual 
supervision is needed throughout the minority of the children. 
Because of the fact that it is difficult for a private society 
with a limited income to give this supervision and because the 
widowers are a group who are always present and will always 
need help, it seems that there should be some form of State 
supervision. In so far as it is possible to do so, the public should 
guarantee to motherless children an opportunity equal to that 
of other groups in the population to grow into normal citizens. 
1 Breckinridge and Abbott. The Delinquent Child and the Home, p. 26. CHAPTER II 
THE NEGLECTED CHILDREN OF ARRESTED 
PARENTS 
Barbara H. Wright 
Introduction 
Criminal parents are jailed in order that society may be 
protected; but society has failed to give protection to their aban- 
doned children. By enduring the destitution and social stigma 
which accompany arrest, these children have shared the penalty 
of their parents’ misdeeds. As long as the purpose of courts 
and penal institutions was largely punishment, this disregard 
for the children in families of criminals was not surprising, but 
now that the purpose is increasingly reform and re-education, 
children ought to be protected from the evil influences resulting 
from the arrest of their parents. This investigation was under- 
taken for the purpose of determining the special hazards to which 
these children are exposed, and the agencies which should be 
developed for their protection. 
Sources of Information 
Five hundred case records of the Massachusetts Society for 
the Prevention of Cruelty to Children supplied the data for this 
study of neglected children whose parents had been arrested. 
In choosing the cases, the files for 1916 to 1918 were examined 
and those cases were selected which had prison terms checked for 
either father or mother. Analysis cards for 391 cases were 
obtained in this way. These were supplemented by 109 cases 
from the files of 1914. A different schedule had been used by 
the Society in the analysis of the latter, so that it was necessary 
to read and re-analyze these records on cards similar to those used 
by the Society for the 1916-1918 cases. Thus a body of material 
of uniform significance was obtained. One hundred cases were 
more intensively studied and additional information was recorded 
on a supplementary schedule. These cases had been thoroughly 
investigated by agents of the Society, as all of them had been 
under their supervision for at least three years, 10 for nine years, 
9 for ten years and 12 for eleven years. 
The limitations of a study based on these case records were 
recognized at the outset. Difficulties were encountered which 66 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
are inevitable when an effort is made to reduce to tabular form 
the varied details of family histories. Furthermore, these cases 
do not represent a typical group of families in which the parents 
had served prison terms. Not only had the parents been ar- 
rested, but added to this was the fact that the children had been 
neglected, so that it cannot be assumed that conclusions will be 
applicable to the entire class of criminal families. Such a study 
will indicate the conditions which may appear in families in which 
the parents had been in prison and the risks to which children in 
such families may be exposed. 
General Characteristics of the Families 
The parents who had served sentences were for the most part 
either American, Canadian or Irish. Almost one-half of those 
whose nativities were reported were born in the United States. 
(Table 1.) Thirty-six per cent, were immigrants from British 
possessions, the largest group of these, 19.5 per cent., came from 
Ireland. The next largest group, 13.3 per cent., were Canadians. 
Less than one-fifth of the total number of parents were immi- 
grants from non-English-speaking countries. There were not 
one-half as many Italians as there were in the group of widowers’ 
families that came before the same Society. That the Irish and 
Canadians were the largest groups of foreigners was to be ex- 
pected, since this is true in the entire population of Massachu- 
setts. Four-fifths of the parents belonged to racial groups which 
share the traditions and ideals common to English-speaking peo- 
ples. Almost three-fourths of the entire number of parents were 
affiliated with the Catholic Church. (Table 2.) 
The economic status of these families is indicated roughly 
by a tabulation of the occupations of the parents. (Table 3.) 
Unskilled work claimed the largest number of the fathers; labor- 
ers, mill and factory operatives, longshoremen and draymen in- 
clude over 50 per cent, of the men whose occupations were re- 
ported. Only about 14 per cent, of the men had learned skilled 
trades. The men engaged in business, public service, and pro- 
fessional work made up less than 5 per cent, of the total. One- 
half of the fathers were evidently in occupations characterized 
by low wages, lack of skill and irregularity of employment.1 
Those who had learned trades had a somewhat better income 
and less unemployment. The number in occupations indicating 
a superior mentality and a long period of training was almost 
negligible. 
1 In the manufacturing industries (including mill and factory operatives) 
the average wage for 1917 was less than $800 per year. See Massachusetts 
Statistics of Manufactures, 1917, p. 30. CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
67 
Only 148 of the 500 mothers were reported as working 
outside the home, and even in these cases they only worked 
periodically. Eighty-five of these were employed in household 
occupations which included day workers, domestics, housekeep- 
ers and restaurant employees. Factories and mills gave work to 
49. Evidently these women became temporary workers in un- 
skilled occupations in order to supply the economic necessities 
of their families. 
Number and, Age of Children 
The total number of children in these 500 families in which 
parents had been committed was 1,818, or an average of 3.6 
children per family. (Table 4, Chart IV.) Families of two and 
four children were the most frequent, there being 102 families 
with two and 101 with four children. (Table 5.) In 30 per 
cent, of the families there were five or more children. This 
combination of large families and low incomes suggests that 
destitution may have been an important factor in promoting the 
criminality of the parents and the neglect of their children. 
The greatest numbers of children in the families involving 
arrested parents were found in the groups who were between 
nine and eleven years old (Table 4) ; in contrast to the families 
of widowers where the most frequent ages for children were 
13 to 15, and those involving divorce and desertion where the 
most frequent ages were 7 to 9. The families of arrested 
parents apparently were reported to the M. S. P. C. C. in time 
to gain protection for the greatest number of their children be- 
fore the ages when delinquency would develop. 
Family Characteristics 
A study of the characteristics of members of the families 
shows that both physically and mentally the mothers were in a 
worse condition than the fathers. (Table 6.) A very small 
amount of venereal disease was reported for the parents, but no 
doubt this is underestimated in the Society’s reports, because 
usually the parents were not given physical examinations. No 
fathers were reported as feeble-minded and only one was in- 
sane, but 31 were considered subnormal. Epilepsy, insanity and 
psychoneurosis were more frequent among the mothers, 21 of 
whom were reported as definitely feeble-minded and 46 were 
considered subnormal. Had the subnormal group been given 
psychological examinations, probably more feeble-mindedness 
would have been discovered. Added to this it must be noted 68 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
that 33 families had one feeble-minded child, 3 had two feeble- 
minded children, and in 3 families three or more children were 
feeble-minded. This tendency toward subnormal mentality is 
a striking characteristic in these families. (Tables 6-A, 6-B 
and 7.) 
That mental defectiveness is characteristic of the class to 
which they belong is further indicated by a study of women 
prisoners. Only 30 per cent, of the women who had been com- 
mitted to the State Reformatory of New York were reported as 
mentally normal.1 A psychological analysis of the women in the 
Reformatory for Women at Framingham, Mass., in 1915, showed 
that one-sixth were feeble-minded, one-half subnormal or dull, 
and only one-third were of fair or good mentality.2 This analysis 
supplies a rough basis for judging the mentality of the mothers 
in the 500 families of the present investigation since two-fifths 
of them had served prison terms. 
Three-fifths of the fathers and two-fifths of the mothers in 
the 500 group were reported as alcoholic, and drunkenness was 
charged to two-thirds of the mothers in 100 families which were 
studied more intensively. (Tables 6-A and 7.) This overindul- 
gence in drink was the most frequent cause of arrest. To the 
families it meant quarreling, drunken brawls, immorality, emptied 
pay envelopes, pawned furniture and loss of work. When the 
mothers were alcoholic there were the added factors of homes 
in disorder, meals not prepared and children running wild. 
Prohibition legislation has already reduced materially the 
number of arrests for drunkenness and it will leave society to 
handle a very much smaller number of families in which arrests 
have occurred for more serious offenses.3 Supervision of chil- 
dren in families involving arrest will, therefore, be simpler and 
less expensive. 
Immorality was reported for 47 fathers and 145 mothers 
(Table 6-A), and it was charged of one-fourth of the parents 
in the 100 families whose records were studied intensively. (Ta- 
ble 7.) Next to drunkenness this was the most frequent cause 
of arrest among the mothers. It was usually accompanied by 
alcoholism and makes a condition of vice from which the State 
1 Seventeenth Annual Report of the New York Reformatory for Women, 
1918, pp. 44-45. 
a Imbecile 1.2 per cent., moron 14.8 per cent., subnormal 29 per cent., 
dull 20.4 per cent., fair 13.6 per cent., good 21 per cent. 
Hodder, Jessie D., The Next Step in Correctional Treatment of Girls and 
Women, Proceedings of the National Conference of Social Work, 1918, p. 117. 
* The total arrests for drunkenness in the State of Massachusetts for 
the month of July were 11,444 in 1917, 7,218 in 1918, and 2,319 in 1919. 
Six Months of It—Survey, January 17, 1920, p. 418. CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
69 
must protect the child if he is to have an opportunity to become 
a normal citizen. Poor stock was noted in 7 per cent, of the 
parents. This was checked when the parents and their relatives 
appeared shiftless or incompetent. Degeneracy in some form 
was found in 95 of the 100 families whose case histories were 
studied intensively. 
The court histories of the parents were what one would ex- 
pect from such a degraded group. At least one parent had been 
imprisoned in each of the 500 cases and in 29 families both par- 
ents had been committed. Almost two-fifths of the fathers had 
been on probation and one-half had other court records. The 
court histories of the mothers include 129 on probation, 192 in 
prison and 111 having other court records. When one considers 
the influence of the examples set by parents, it seems unpardon- 
able that men and women of this type should be allowed to rear 
without supervision the future citizens of the State. The results 
of their influence are seen in 72 families, in which from one to 
three children were on probation, 18 families which had children 
in penal institutions, and 22 families in which children had other 
court records. 
In 407 families the members of the households included only 
the parents and their children; in 53, relatives were present; and 
in 47, or less than one-tenth of the total number, there were 
lodgers. These strangers were found less frequently in the 
criminal families than in those where there were divorced, sep- 
arated or deserting parents. 
The following summaries taken from case records present 
more graphically typical families of the group studied: 
Case I. A degenerate mother, who had been arrested for 
druiikc«noci! made the G home an unfit place for her five 
children ranging m o.s~ from a baby in arms to a boy of ten. 
The father was an iron-moulaei -„ho earned fairly good wages, 
but both parents drank to excess and quarreled continuously. 
Once in a fit of rage the mother threw the Christmas dinner out 
the window and, had not the father intervened, the baby would 
have followed. She was examined and committed to a hospital 
for the insane, where she only remained a month. Later the 
father died, the mother was recommitted to the hospital and the 
children placed in boarding homes. 
Case II. The irregular school attendance of a twelve-year- 
old boy living in a dirty, poorly-kept home lacking dishes and 
beds caused an attendance officer to report the family. Exces- 
sive drinking, noisy parties and bad companions had caused the 
father to be arrested once and the mother 17 times. 70 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
Means by Which Cases of Neglect Were Reported 
Over three-fifths of the 100 cases of neglect intensively 
studied were reported by public agencies, including the police, 
parole and probation officers, and school officials.1 (Table 8.) 
That the police reported 38 of the 100 families shows that they 
have developed a feeling of responsibility toward the children 
whose parents they find it necessary to arrest. School officials 
reported only six of the cases, but as the duties of the visiting 
teacher are developed, more frequent co-operation in reporting 
neglect may be expected. Unfortunately it is impossible to com- 
pare the number of cases reported as in need of protection, with 
the number that should have been reported, but it is evident that 
these officials could be organized so that they would give prompt 
notice to the proper agencies of the needs of children whose 
parents have been arrested. The need for such prompt preventive 
work is evident from the fact that in this group of 100 families 
there were eight where there were one or more children who 
were seriously ill and six where children already were delinquent. 
Forms of Neglect From Which the Children Suffered 
Physical neglect of children was found in three-fourths of 
the 500 families of arrested parents and it was judged by the 
M. S. P. C. C. to be the predominant factor in almost one-third 
of these families. (Tables 9 and 10.) Insufficient food or 
clothing, inadequate shelter and lack of cleanliness were the 
usual forms of physical neglect. An emaciated child whose 
clothing is filthy and ragged more quickly enlists the sympathy 
of the community than one subject to the more insidious bn* 
less apparent forms of moral neglect resulting- f>-~"* afyonolism 
and immorality in the home. Typir»1 samples of physical neg- 
lect are shown in the foliow;**gr case records : 
Case III. Two poorly-clad children living in an ill-kept 
home of two rooms ana cared for by an immoral, alcoholic mother 
who was afterward judged feeble-minded, were reported bv the 
police. The father was in the House of Correction, and there 
was nothing for the children to eat but an insufficient amount 
of bread and milk. 
Case IV. A baby left all day in a bureau drawer caused the 
landlady to report Mr. and Mrs. H , who were rooming in 
her house. The parents excused themselves by saying that they 
could not get away from the restaurant where they had just 
1 Public agencies reported only 23 of the 100 families involving divorce, 
separation or desertion, and 38 of the 100 widowers’ families. CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
71 
obtained work and had forgotten to telephone the landlady about 
the baby. Later the child was again reported as bruised and 
neglected and in need of hospital care. 
Protection from physical cruelty is at the present time one of 
the lesser functions of the M. S. P. C. C. Although physical cruel- 
ty appeared as a factor in 7.6 per cent, of the 500 cases, it was only 
judged predominant in 1.6 per cent. (Table 10.) Medical neg- 
lect was the cause of intervention in only 2.2 per cent, of the 
families. Non-support was second in importance to physical 
neglect, as it appeared in almost two-thirds and was considered 
predominant in about one-fifth of the families studied. Non- 
support included both neglect to support in marriage and neglect 
to support illegitimate children. The following illustrates neglect 
of this kind: 
Case V. A white baby whose mother was on trial for adul- 
tery, was being cared for by a colored woman. She had not 
mistreated the baby, but she complained that no clothing had been 
supplied, and since the mother had ceased to pay the board she 
could keep the child no longer. 
In 30 per cent, of the 500 families low social standards 
rather than any definite improper treatment of the children made 
intervention necessary. In one-third of these cases (Table 10) 
neglect of moral standards other than sex was the primary rea- 
son for interference. Usually this meant drunkenness, excessive 
profanity and quarreling or the presence of bad companions in 
the home. This is illustrated in the following: 
Case VI. Drunken parents “whose language was at all 
times vile and abusive” proved a questionable influence for four 
unkempt children living in a filthy home of three rooms. While 
the father was in jail for neglect of the children the mother was 
caught smuggling liquor to him. She was arrested also and the 
children spent the night in the almshouse. The court left the 
children with the parents for one more trial, but later the three 
oldest were placed in boarding homes. In order that she might 
work, the mother boarded out the baby, who had been left with 
her, but she failed to pay the board, so this child also was re- 
moved. 
Neglect of sex standards was found as a condition in almost 
one-half of the cases studied and was the primary reason for the 
Society’s interference in 17.6 per cent, of the 500 families. (Ta- 
bles 9 and 10.) Illegitimacy was checked in over one-fifth of the 
records. Children in these families are frequently under the 
influence of mothers arrested for street walking or keeping dis- 
orderly houses. They are also exposed to immorality resulting 72 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
from having lodgers or bad companions in the home. After 
children living under these conditions become delinquent the 
State tries to re-educate them through training schools and parole. 
Case VII. During a period of nearly five years the M. S. 
P. C. C. was endeavoring to give protection to the five children 
of a drunken Norwegian carpenter and an immoral American 
mother. Attention was first called to the situation when the 
undertaker reported that in the absence of the parents he had 
found the dead body of an infant on the sofa while three children 
were playing about the room. At the time the father was in jail 
for drunkenness. The stepson, a boy of 14, was committed to 
the Home for Destitute Catholic Children for three months for 
waywardness, and after a continuance of neglect proceedings 
for six months, the girls of 9, 5 and 3 years were permitted to 
remain with their parents. 
The case was reopened two years later, when the family 
was found living in a tent after having been ejected from their 
house. No action was taken, although the parents and an uncle 
living with them quarreled continuously and drank to excess. 
Later in the same year the police observed the children at 11 
P. M. waiting outside a saloon in which their parents were drink- 
ing. The children were judged neglected but were again left 
with the parents. 
After another interval of two years the family was found 
living in a disreputable house which had been raided as dis- 
orderly. Both parents were drinking, the father was out of work, 
and the mother earned a precarious living by scrubbing. When 
visited, the little girls who were doing the housework were with- 
out food, as the mother had deserted them for a week. The 
situation had become desperate, the parents indulged in con- 
tinuous quarreling and vulgar language, and the mother had 
immoral relations with men who came to the house. At times 
she acted like a maniac, throwing kettles and pans out of the 
windows. The three girls were placed with the Home for Des- 
titute Catholic Children until they could be supplied with board- 
ing homes. 
Forms of Neglect Found in Cases Studied Intensively 
The intensive study of 100 cases made possible a more de- 
tailed analysis of the forms of physical neglect and revealed the 
extent to which the children suffered from lack of parental super- 
vision and failure to enforce school attendance. (Table 11, 
Chart V.) In almost one-half of these families physical neglect 
meant inadequate food, clothing and shelter, and in one-fifth of CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
73 
them it meant lack of cleanliness. Absence of supervision in 
three-fourths of the cases was an added hazard not shown by 
the M. S. P. C. C. analysis of neglect. This was checked when 
the mother was too degenerate, either mentally or morally, to 
give her children proper care or when she was away from home 
either at work or in a penal institution. Usually a combination 
of several forms of neglect was found in one family, an average 
of over three having been checked for each family of the 100 
group. 
Types of Agencies Co-operating With the M. S. P. C. C. 
The Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to 
Children enlisted the assistance of 85 different agencies in caring 
for the 100 families studied intensively. Institutions offering 
shelter and temporary care were used in over two-thirds of these 
cases. (Table 12.) Disciplinary agencies, including the courts 
and probation officers, assisted in dealing with three-fourths of 
the families, indicating that State officials are already to some 
degree reaching the families of arrested parents. In an effort 
to make the homes suitable for the children, agencies offering aid 
and training in the home were enlisted in about one-half of the 
100 cases. 
Actions Taken by the Court 
Almost twice as many court actions were reported for fam- 
ilies in which the parents had been in prison as for those of wid- 
owers or those in which there had been divorce, separation or 
desertion.1 These actions did not represent the complete court 
histories of the families, but only those actions which were 
brought under the cognizance and often with the assistance of 
the M. S. P. C. C. Actions for new control of the child were 
taken in one-half of the 500 cases studied. The right of the 
State to intervene for the protection of the children was exercised 
more frequently in dealing with arrested than with other neglect- 
ful parents, as it is obvious that such parents would be found 
least competent for the rearing of future citizens. 
Court actions for discipline of the child occurred in only 7.6 
per cent, of these families. Such actions included delinquency, 
waywardness and school offenses. (Table 13.) However, ac- 
tions to establish new control for the better discipline of the child 
were considered necessary more frequently in this group than 
1 Court actions in widowers’ families, 234 ; in families involving divorce, 
separation or desertion, 261; and of arrested parents, 445. 74 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
in the others studied, as the children of arrested parents had been 
exposed to many demoralizing influences. 
Non-support was most frequent among the court actions 
for the discipline of the parents, and drunkenness, assault and 
battery and sex crimes came next in importance. In families of 
this type alcoholism and immorality are outstanding character- 
istics. 
Actions Taken in Caring for the Neglected Children of Arrested 
Parents 
A general understanding of the policies of the M. S. P. C. C. 
is necessary before considering the actions taken in handling 
these cases. That children can be cared for most effectively in 
family homes is a basic principle. Furthermore, his own home 
is considered the best place for a child, and he is only removed 
from a defective home after all efforts at reconstruction have 
failed. Institutional care is not advocated except for defectives 
and for children needing temporary shelter. 
In accordance with the Society’s policy, in 176 of the 500 
cases the children were cared for in families. (Table 14.) In 
only 51 of these cases, however, was it possible to leave the chil- 
dren with their parents under supervision. The children in 33 
families were removed until their own homes were reconstructed, 
and then were returned to their parents. This temporary removal 
was often a sufficient shock to the parents to make them realize 
their responsibility. One of these two methods was used in over 
two-fifths of the 100 cases more carefully studied. (Table 15.) 
In about one-tenth of the 500 families, children were taken 
from their parents and placed with relatives. The more detailed 
study of 100 cases showed that in one-eighth of them children 
had been cared for in this way. 
In the following instances treatment of this type was given: 
Case VIII. The M family consisted of father, mother 
and one daughter five years of age. The mother, who had served 
both probation and prison terms for drunkenness, was finally 
committed to a hospital for the insane. The father placed the 
child at board, but soon lost track of her. He appealed to the 
M. S. P. C. C., who, after a long search, found the child and 
arranged to have her cared for by relatives. 
Case IX. Of the seven children in the A family, the 
four oldest—three boys and a girl—were working and contributing 
to the family support. Two girls, twelve and thirteen, and a 
boy of six were in moral danger. Bad family conditions were CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
75 
indicated by the fact that the father had been in court 24 times 
in nine years for assault and battery and drunkenness, and that 
it had been necessary to send one of the older sons to the Suffolk 
School. Since the family income was adequate and the mother 
was not degenerate, the children were left in the home and con- 
ditions were improved through supervision. 
Forty-seven of the 500 cases were referred by the Society 
to the Division of Child Guardianship of the State Department 
of Public Welfare, whose agents placed the children in carefully 
selected boarding homes. Many of the 137 cases referred to the 
Home for Destitute Catholic Children were cared for in this 
way, since this institution only keeps the children until it is pos- 
sible to place them in homes. (Table 14.) 
Case X. Three dirty rooms containing but two beds were 
the home of a mother, a grown-up son who was a drunkard, and 
five children, all under ten years of age. The father was serving 
a sentence in the House of Correction for assault and battery, 
and the mother had just been released from probation for the 
same offense. She drank to excess and was reported to sell 
liquor on Sundays. Some years before, several children by her 
first husband had been taken away because of neglect. These 
five children were judged neglected by the court and sent to the 
Home for Destitute Catholic Children. Later they were placed 
in families. 
Since the M. S. P. C. C. is doing case work, which means 
trying to care fm- each child in accordance with its individual 
needs, a large group of miscellaneous actions was reported. 
Thirty-six cases were supervised by other agencies after the first 
crises had been handled by the M. S. P. C. C., and in 22 instances 
it seemed wiser to transfer the cases immediately to other agen- 
cies more fitted for handling them. Destitution was relieved in 
26 families through the assistance of the Overseers of the Poor. 
Very frequently the medical needs found in these 500 families 
were met by referring them to suitable dispensaries or hospitals. 
No definite action was found to be possible in 53 of the 500 
families having arrested parents. The reasons for this were 
varied, but included lack of evidence, unwarranted complaints 
and the disappearance of the families. There was less difficulty 
in obtaining evidence of neglect in the cases of families of crim- 
inal parents than in those of widowers or those broken by divorce, 
separation or desertion, since such parents were subject to more 
police supervision. 
An estimate of the degree of success in the treatment of the 
100 families intensively studied showed that the purpose of the 76 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
Society had been accomplished in one-third of the families, and 
that in almost one-half improvement had been secured. (Table 
16.) A slightly greater number of failures was reported in the 
treatment of criminal families than in the other two types studied, 
indicating again the extreme difficulty in handling families of 
arrested parents. 
Summary 
Meager earnings, large families, defective mentality and 
moral degeneracy characterize families of arrested parents whose 
children have been neglected. These children do not suffer from 
cruel treatment, but they run the risk of not receiving adequate 
physical care, of getting irregular schooling and of being ex- 
posed to various forms of vice which lead to delinquency. The 
State aggravates these bad conditions by placing the parents in 
jail and leaving the unprotected children to struggle against the 
resulting destitution and social stigma. So far, the public has 
assumed but little responsibility for systematic efforts to safe- 
guard children whose parents have been arrested. Private agen- 
cies have carried this work through its experimental stages, and 
demonstrated fully their need of special protection and guidance. 
A comprehensive plan for giving kindly and adequate protection 
to the children whose homes have been broken by arrest might 
well become a part of the activities by which the State seeks to 
care for its future citizens. CHAPTER III 
THE NEGLECTED CHILDREN OF FAMILIES BROKEN 
BY SEPARATION, DESERTION OR DIVORCE 
Summary of the Results of an Investigation 
Made by Sophia C. Gleim 
The hazards suffered by children in families broken by 
separation, desertion or divorce are evident from the fact that 
such families supplied one-fourth (24.8 per cent.) of the cases 
cared for between November 1, 1917, and November 1, 1918, by 
the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Chil- 
dren. In studying these cases two forms of analyses were used: 
(1) That made by the Society for its own purpose, and (2) a 
special form made in the course of this investigation. Five hun- 
dred of the former and one hundred of the latter supplied the 
data presented in this report. The cases analyzed by agents of 
the Society were taken from the files of 1916, 1917 and 1918, 
and came from all parts of Massachusetts; while the 100 cases 
studied intensively were those of broken families in or near 
Boston. No children whose parents had been separated for less 
than six months were included in the study. The periods when 
the children were under the supervision of the Society varied 
from six weeks to twelve years, but the usual period was one 
to two years. 
Characteristics of the Parents 
Over 60 per cent, of the parents in these families were 
Americans, the majority of whom gave varied evidence of their 
unfitness for producing and rearing future citizens. Half of them 
came from New England, and one in eight was a Canadian. 
(Table 1.) None of the non-English-speaking foreign groups 
was represented by as many as 5 per cent, of the cases. Does 
the loss of family virtues accompany and promote the decay of 
the native stock? Over half of the parents claiming religious 
affiliations were Protestant. (Table 2.) This proportion is 
greater than that of the groups of widowers or arrested parents, 
but is to be expected in families which are chiefly of New Eng- 
land stock. The Catholic Church did not prevent disregard of 
family ties by the 46 per cent, who claimed this as their religion. 78 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
The Jewish group was negligible, being represented by only 1 
in 200. The families with parents of differing religions were 
not tabulated, but there was abundant evidence indicating that 
such differences may have been frequent sources of disagreement. 
The summary of degenerate traits of these parents indi- 
cates that the situation of the mothers may have been worse than 
that of the fathers. A larger number of them were diseased 
or mentally defective. Thus in the group of 600 families there 
were 65 fathers and 127 mothers who had various forms of 
mental and physical defects. (Table 6-A.) The moral degreda- 
tion of these unworthy parents is revealed more forcefully in the 
records of the 100 cases studied intensively. (Table 7.) Over 
half (51) of the mothers were reported as sexually immoral, and 
the 17 fathers charged with such lapses probably were only the 
more flagrant and easily detected offenders. Over two out of 
five (45) of the fathers were drunkards, and nearly as many 
(40) had deserted their families. Eleven mothers were feeble- 
minded or insane, and the same number of fathers had criminal 
records. The physical and mental defects of the mothers is 
apparent also in the analyses made by agents of the Society. 
(Table 6-A.) Their venereal diseases, feeble-mindedness, sub- 
normal mentality and insanity seem more hopeless marks of de- 
generacy than the drunkenness and criminality of the fathers. 
The sexual non-conformity of the mothers gave rise not only 
to desertion, separation or divorce, but also to the birth of nu- 
merous illegitimate children. Such children were found in 92, 
or over 15 per cent., of the 600 families studied, and when birth 
records of both parents and children were considered, the per- 
centage rose to 22.3. (Table 9.) One hundred and thirty-four 
children, more than 7 per cent, of the total number, were born 
out of wedlock. Sixty-six families were found each with one 
illegitimate child, 14 each with two, and 12 each with three or 
more. One of the latter was a family of seven children, all of 
whom sprang from unlawful sexual intercourse. The illegitimacy 
rate in this group of broken families was over three times as 
great as that of the population at large, as the proportion of such 
births reported for Massachusetts in 1914 was 23 per 1,000 live 
births, while the rate for this group was 72 per 1,000 children. 
The following cases will illustrate the social evils which 
result from the failure to give adequate supervision to these 
psychopathic or subnormal women: 
Case I. The Society had under its care for one year the child 
of a woman who remarked to the physician that she had given CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
79 
birth to “about ten” illegitimate children. She had met the 
father of this child during one of the periods of her husband’s 
desertion. When the couple discovered that a child would be 
born from their unlawful cohabitation, they decided to live to- 
gether and represent themselves as husband and wife. The 
lawful husband obtained a divorce and, through the intervention 
of agents of the M. S. P. C. C., the parents of the child were 
married. However, more stable personal ties did not promote 
a sense of family responsibility, as both parents wished to get 
rid of their child. The conduct of the mother suggests a psycho- 
pathic condition, although she appeared to be much superior to 
the father in education and mental ability. 
Case II. Three illegitimate children were born during the 
period of less than four years when this couple was under the 
observation of the M. S. P. C. C. The father was feeble-minded 
and the mother’s record was summed up in the terse expression, 
“rotten.” Her appearance on the street clad in heavy mourning 
in anticipation of a grandmother’s death was reported as an 
example of her peculiarities. 
Case III. The sordid record of a feeble-minded, colored 
woman was revealed by investigations requested by an anonymous 
letter. The befogged state of her moral perceptions was evident 
when her confession that seven of her children were illegitimate 
was accompanied by the remark, “anybody will make mistakes,” 
and by her assumption that she was entirely moral because she 
had refrained from street solicitation. She exclaimed, “If I had 
60,000 children I would not permit one of them to be taken away 
from me!” Yet her children suffered from a lack of food, cloth- 
ing, medical care and supervision. One five-months-old child 
was found dead in bed by the brother left in charge while the 
mother went to church. She claimed that her poor health ex- 
plained the deaths of four rickety, tubercular infants. Finally 
the woman was sent to the State Reformatory. 
Economic Conditions 
The fluctuations in the personnel of these families made it 
difficult to discover just who was responsible for the support of 
their children. Both fathers and mothers showed a somewhat 
intermittent sense of family responsibility. Pressure from the 
Domestic Relations Court extracted more or less regular con- 
tributions from some absent fathers,1 and about two out of five 
1 The M. S. P. C. C. instituted 41 court actions for non-support or deser- 
tion. 80 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
of the mothers attempted to earn money by the poorly-paid, un- 
skilled work open to such women1 rather than or in addition to 
the easier and more lucrative sex traffic. 
These economic difficulties were met frequently by renting 
rooms to lodgers or by child labor. In one-third of the families, 
strangers or relatives were members of the household. Their 
presence tended to aggravate the immoral conditions. Thus there 
were frequent charges of immoral relations with mothers or 
daughters in the 37 households where there were unrelated male 
lodgers. Many of the children were at work, and the majority 
sought positions as soon as they reached the legal age of employ- 
ment. 
However, the bulk of the evidence indicates that bad moral 
conditions, rooted in the physical and nervous defects of the 
mothers, contributed more to the disrupting of these families 
than the economic incompetence of the fathers. At least half 
of those for whom occupations were reported (Table 3) claimed 
more or less skilled trades which may be expected to bring in- 
comes sufficient to support families. 
Neglect of Children in Broken Families 
Of the three groups of children studied through the records 
of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, those 
found in the families broken by separation or divorce were most 
subject to physical cruelty. They were younger (Table 4, Chart 
IV) than the children of the widowers and arrested parents, and 
so had greater need for the protection and guidance given in good 
homes, but the personal traits which ruptured the ties between 
parents contributed to the cruel or abusive treatment of children, 
or promoted indifference to their physical and moral needs. 
The analyses of conditions in these families made by agents 
of the M. S. P. C. C. show for each family the predominant or 
chief cause which made necessary intervention for the protection 
of the children, and state also other bad conditions which threat- 
ened their welfare. (Tables 9, 10 and 11, Chart V.) A tabula- 
tion of these reports reveals the three chief evils to which chil- 
dren in broken families are exposed: (1) Non-support, found 
in nearly three-fifths of the homes (58 per cent.) and predomi- 
nant in about one-fourth (23 per cent.) ; (2) physical neglect, 
1 Among the 231 mothers who worked outside their homes there were 
84 factory operatives, 38 domestics, 23 waitresses, 21 day workers or clean- 
ers, 15 laundresses, 12 housekeepers, 6 hotel and restaurant employees, and 
a scattered list in miscellaneous occupations. CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
81 
found in over half (54 per cent.) and predominant in one-fourth 
(27 per cent.) of the families; (3) contact with sexual im- 
morality, found also in over half (55 per cent.) and predominant 
in one-fourth (25 per cent.) of the families. The two first fac- 
tors interlock as, of course, non-support resulted in insufficient 
food, clothing and medical care. These broken families had an 
excess of physical as well as of moral uncleanliness. Intemper- 
ance and lack of supervision for the children were also common 
characteristics. 
The sensitiveness of the Boston public to the needs of chil- 
dren is evident from the varied sources of the reports calling 
attention to the need of special efforts for the protection of the 
children in these families. (Table 8.) The alert agents of 
charitable and religious societies reported nearly a third of the 
cases, and relatives, neighbors or friends and the police, in the 
order named, came next in the frequency with which they ap- 
pealed for special attention to the needs of these neglected chil- 
dren. However, nearly half had suffered from some form of 
serious injury before attention was called to the need of inter- 
vention. 
Treatment Given Broken Families With Neglected Children 
Discipline and training for the selfish and neglectful parents 
were the forms of treatment most needed in the broken families. 
Of the 261 court actions found necessary in dealing with 600 
families, only 25 were for the discipline of the children. (Table 
13.) The others were for the purpose of training or disciplining 
the parents, so that they would give better care to their children. 
In many instances (133) reports of improved conditions 
justified the dropping of the cases, and in others (71) a more 
or less lengthy period of continuous supervision was found neces- 
sary. About half of the children were retained in or returned 
to their families and, whenever possible, foster homes were found 
with relatives. Less than two in five were placed in the homes of 
strangers or in institutions. (For details of treatment see Tables 
13, 14 and 15.) On the whole, the rehabilitation of the natural 
family was accomplished in a larger proportion of cases than 
was possible in the families where the mothers had died or the 
parents were under arrest. 
The task of bringing these parents to the point where they 
would put aside personal grievances and care for their children 
was often complex and difficult. As many as thirteen agencies 82 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
were enlisted in the treatment of one family, ten assisted with 
another, and the co-operation of seven or eight in the care of the 
children and discipline and training of their parents was not 
infrequent. A community less abundantly equipped with med- 
ical and social agencies than Boston would be unable to salvage 
so many sufferers from the wreckage of family life. CHAPTER IV 
COMBINED TABLES FOR STUDIES IN PART II 84 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
TABLE 1. BIRTHPLACES OF THE FATHERS AND MOTHERS OF CHILDREN FROM 1,600 FAMILIES 
CARED FOR BY THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO 
CHILDREN 
Country of birth 
Total 
parents 
reported 
Number Per cent. 
Number of parents 
Widowered 
fathers 
500 
Fathers Mothers 
of specified nativities 
with: 
Arrested 
parents 
500 
Fathers Mothers 
found in families 
Separated, 
divorced or 
deserting parents 
600 
Fathers Mothers 
Totals1 .. : 
. 2,176 
100 
336 
278 
369 
392 
385 
416 
United States 
. 1,074 
49.4 
134 
100 
172 
180 
233 
255 
Massachusetts 
. 701 
32.2 
78 
73 
118 
128 
150 
154 
Other New England States 
. 202 
9.3 
24 
12 
31 
36 
39 
60 
U. S. other than New England. 
. 171 
7.9 
32 
15 
23 
16 
44 
41 
British Possessions 
. 671 
30.8 
117 
114 
127 
150 
71 
92 
Canada 
. 282 
13 
43 
39 
50 
51 
43 
56 
England 
79 
3.6 
14 
14 
9 
14 
13 
15 
Ireland 
. 295 
13.6 
58 
57 
66 
82 
14 
18 
Scotland 
15 
.7 
2 
4 
2 
3 
1 
3 
Other Countries 
. 431 
19.8 
85 
64 
70 
62 
81 
69 
Armenia 
4 
.2 
3 
1 
Austria 
26 
1.2 
8 
li 
3 
4 
Austria Hungary 
18 
.8 
9 
9 
Belgium 
5 
.2 
2 
3 
Finland 
8 
.4 
4 
4 
Germany 
17 
.8 
O 
1 
3 
1 
4 
5 
Greece 
13 
.6 
2 
2 
5 
4 
Italy and Sicily 
. 114 
5.2 
31 
23 
12 
9 
23 
16 
Poland 
32 
1.5 
4 
8 
7 
5 
8 
Russia 
76 
3.5 
13 
11 
16 
16 
11 
9 
Scandinavian countries 
51 
2.3 
11 
9 
14 
10 
4 
3 
West Indies 
45 
2.1 
7 
6 
17 
15 
All others2 
22 
1.0 
3 
i 
2 
2 
9 
5 
1 Nativities were not reported for 1,024 parents. 
2 Of the fathers, the birthplace of 1 was Albania, 2 Armenia, 1 Australia, 2 Azores, 1 China, 3 Finland, 1 
Greece, 3 Portugal. 
Of the mothers, the birthplace of 1 was Albania, 1 Armenia, 1 Finland, 1 Greece, 1 India, 3 Portugal. CHILDREN IN NEED OF 
SPECIAL CARE 
85 
TABLE 2. RELIGIOUS AFFILIATIONS OF THE PARENTS IN 1,600 FAMILIES CARED FOR BY THE 
MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO CHILDREN 
Religious affiliations 
Total 
parents 
reported 
Number of parents 
Widowered 
fathers 
500 
of 
in 
specified religious 
families with: 
Arrested 
parents 
500 
affiliations found 
Separated, 
divorced or 
deserting parents 
600 
Number Per cent. 
Fathers 
Mothers 
Fathers Mothers 
Fathers Mothers 
Totals1 
2,713 
100 
454 
402 
433 455 
477 
492 
Catholic 
1,591 
58.6 
262 
244 
305 333 
220 
227 
Protestant 
1,092 
40.3 
184 
150 
126 120 
252 
260 
Jewish 
1.1 
8 
8 
2 2 
5 
5 
1 Four hundred and eighty-six cases where religious affiliations were not stated, and 1 Mohammedan are not 
included in this table. 86 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
TABLE 3. OCCUPATIONS OF 1,600 FATHERS OF FAMILIES 
CARED FOR BY THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY FOR THE 
PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO CHILDREN 
Occupations 
Total 
s* 
<o 
& 
£ 
3 
z 
fathers 
c 
a? 
o 
u 
0) 
P< 
Number of fathers 
engaged in speci- 
fied occupations in 
families broken by: 
m 
*aS of S£ 
f o« 
" oi <o > M 
_ ® ® cj X, ai 
®-a u ft'O'O 
f, u a 
H < xn 
Totals 
. .1,600 
100 
500 
500 
600 
Agriculture, Forestry and Animal Hus- 
bandry 
. . 53 
3.3 
14 
15 
24 
Farmers, gardeners and lumbermen 34 
2.1 
11 
6 
17 
Fishermen 
. . 19 
1.2 
3 
9 
7 
Manufacturing and Mechanical Indus- 
tries 
. . 491 
30.7 
188 
151 
152 
Blacksmiths 
9 
.6 
2 
5 
2 
Boiler makers and riveters 
5 
.3 
2 
2 
1 
Brick and stone masons 
. . 13 
.8 
7 
5 
1 
Building workers 
. . 12 
.8 
4 
8 
Carpenters and cabinet makers.. 
. . 59 
3.7 
21 
20 
18 
Electricians 
7 
.4 
3 
4 
Engineers 
. . 14 
.9 
6 
8 
Factory operatives and mill hands.. 201 
12.6 
80 
66 
55 
Foremen 
3 
.2 
3 
Foundry and machine shop 
. . 96 
6.0 
41 
15 
40 
Painters and paper hangers 
. . 37 
2.3 
9 
10 
18 
Plumbers, gas and steam fitters. 
8 
.5 
3 
4 
1 
Printers 
6 
.4 
2 
2 
2 
Tailors 
6 
.4 
4 
2 
Not otherwise classified1 
15 
.9 
10 
5 
Transportation 
.. 191 
11.9 
71 
65 
55 
Draymen, motormen, teamsters and 
expressmen 
.. 110 
6.9 
44 
33 
33 
Railroad workers 
. . 32 
2.0 
12 
12 
8 
Automobile workers and chauffeurs 21 
1.3 
4 
5 
12 
Longshoremen 
. . 24 
1.5 
8 
14 
2 
Not otherwise classified1 
4 
.3 
3 
1 
Trade 
. . 48 
3.0 
13 
19 
16 
Meat cutter 
1 
.1 
1 
Agents 
4 
.3 
2 
2 
Clerks 
.. 13 
.8 
2 
8 
3 
Peddlers 
. . 13 
.8 
5 
3 
5 
Salesmen 
7 
.4 
2 
3 
2 
Storekeepers 
8 
.5 
3 
2 
3 
Jobbers 
.1 
1 
Horse dealer 
1 
.1 
1 CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
87 
TABLE 3. (Continued.) OCCUPATIONS OP 1,600 FATHERS OF 
FAMILIES CARED FOR BY THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 
FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO CHILDREN 
Occupations 
Total fathers 
| 1 
s l 
2 ® 
Number of fathers 
engaged in speci- 
fied occupations in 
families broken by: 
os 
02 ° 2 
2 C 02 § 
■5 o ®.2 
2 "G 02 ’■§ 2 £ 
C-M -tJ “ o ® 
c cS ® S to 
<D ® cj ® 
2-a t ft'C'o 
H < V2 
Public Service1 
48 
3.0 
12 
4 
32 
Professional Service1 
15 
.9 
5 
2 
8 
Domestic and Personal Service.... 
65 
4.1 
24 
21 
20 
Barbers 
14 
.9 
6 
2 
6 
Bartenders 
2 
.1 
2 
Cooks, chef and restaurant 
workers 
10 
.6 
3 
4 
3 
Elevator tenders 
5 
.3 
2 
2 
1 
Janitors 
9 
.6 
3 
2 
4 
Stablemen 
6 
.4 
2 
4 
Waiters 
12 
.8 
2 
7 
3 
Not otherwise classified1... 
7 
.4 
4 
3 
Miscellaneous 
229 
14.3 
90 
86 
53 
Extraction of minerals 
4 
.3 
4 
Laborers 
211 
13.2 
78 
85 
48 
Watchmen 
5 
.3 
5 
Not otherwise classified1... 
9 
.6 
3 
1 
5 
Not reported 
460 
28.7 
83 
137 
240 
1 The details of these groups may be obtained by applying to the Re- 
search Department of The Women’s Educational and Industrial Union. 88 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
WIDOWERS 
CHa'rtis?, age 1600 m.s-p.c.C. case records. 
BROKEN HOMES 
ARRESTED PARENTS 
DATA JS IN TABLE 4*. 
PER CENT 
AGE TABLE 4. AGE DISTRIBUTION OF THE CHILDREN IN 1,600 FAMILIES CARED FOR BY THE MASSA- 
CHUSETTS SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO CHILDREN 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
89 
Age1 
Total 
children 
reported 
Number Per cent. 
Number of children 
Widowered 
fathers 
500 
Male Female 
of specified ages 
with: 
Arrested 
parents 
500 
Male Female 
found in families 
Separated, 
divorced or 
deserting parents 
600 
Male Female 
Totals2 
.... 5,551 
100 
926 
941 
950 
868 
947 
919 
Under one year 
. . .. 119 
2.1 
6 
9 
23 
15 
34 
32 
One to two years 
. . . . 393 
7.1 
26 
37 
77 
66 
94 
93 
Three to four years 
. . . . 497 
9.0 
46 
64 
83 
93 
106 
105 
Five to six years 
.. . . 563 
10.1 
74 
74 
99 
109 
94 
113 
Seven to eight years 
. . . . 628 
11.3 
93 
91 
111 
99 
111 
123 
Nine to ten years 
. . . . 664 
12.0 
114 
105 
120 
113 
119 
93 
Eleven to twelve years 
. . . . 648 
11.7 
110 
118 
101 
111 
98 
110 
Thirteen to fourteen years 
. . . . 604 
10.9 
121 
121 
106 
90 
83 
83 
Fifteen to sixteen years 
. . . . 479 
8.6 
89 
121 
73 
62 
57 
77 
Seventeen to eighteen years... 
. . . . 340 
6.1 
72 
72 
60 
50 
49 
37 
Nineteen to twenty years 
... . 223 
4.0 
57 
35 
48 
25 
32 
26 
Twenty-one years and over 
.. . . 264 
4.8 
72 
62 
39 
26 
38 
27 
Age not reported 
... . 129 
2.3 
46 
32 
10 
9 
32 
1 The ages given are as a rule the ages of the children when the cases were closed. 
a Eighty-two children are omitted from this table as no sex was given. 90 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
TABLE 5. CHILDREN POUND1 IN 1,600 FAMILIES CARED FOR 
BY THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY FOR THE PREVEN- 
TION OF CRUELTY TO CHILDREN 
Children 
Number 
o 
ct- 
P 
Per cent. 
Families having 
specified number 
of children: 
Li 
O 
'd sp 
® m 02 y 5 g 02 
|5 £2 
<uoi 
ST 
> < TO 
Total families 
.1,600 
100 
500 
500 
600 
One child 
. 245 
15.3 
69 
63 
113 
Two children 
. 331 
20.7 
85 
102 
144 
Three children 
. 291 
18.2 
89 
84 
118 
Four children 
. 280 
17.5 
84 
101 
95 
Five children 
. 192 
12.0 
82 
53 
57 
Six children 
. 130 
8.1 
48 
47 
35 
Seven children 
. 75 
4.7 
19 
33 
23 
Eight children 
. 28 
1.8 
8 
10 
10 
Nine children 
13 
.8 
5 
5 
3 
Ten children or more 
. 13 
.8 
11 
1 
1 
Number not reported 
2 
.1 
. . 
1 
1 
1 This indicates in general the number of children living at home at the 
time the cases were reported, rather than the total number of children in 
the family. CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
91 
TABLE 6-A. EVIDENCES OF DEGENERACY FOUND IN 1,600 FAMILIES CARED FOR BY THE MASSA- 
CHUSETTS SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO CHILDREN 
A—Parents 
Number 
having specified degenerate 
condition in 
families 
Separated, 
Degenerate condition 
Widowered 
Arrested 
divorced or 
reported 
fathers 
parents 
deserting parents 
Total 
for 1,600 
families 
500 
500 
600 
Both parents 
Fathers Mothers 
Fathers 
Mothers 
Fathers Mothers Fathers 
Mothers 
Totals 
2,209 
1,461 
532 
155 
1,216 
901 
461 
405 
Bad Physical Condition. 
211 
68 
143 
18 
60 
20 
40 
30 
43 
Crippled 
13 
8 
5 
4 
3 
3 
1 
2 
Gonorrhea 
15 
4 
11 
1 
i 
i 
5 
2 
5 
Syphilis 
33 
9 
24 
3 
4 
3 
9 
3 
11 
Tuberculosis 
86 
22 
64 
3 
45 
6 
7 
13 
12 
Other diseases 
64 
25 
39 
7 
10 
7 
16 
11 
13 
Defective Nervous Endow- 
ment 
274 
93 
181 
25 
17 
33 
80 
35 
84 
Epilepsy 
10 
4 
6 
1 
1 
4 
2 
2 
Feeble-mindedness1 .. 
42 
4 
38 
1 
1 
21 
3 
16 
Insanity 
43 
10 
33 
2 
7 
i 
6 
7 
20 
Psycho-neurosis 
8 
1 
7 
1 
3 
4 
Subnormal 
171 
74 
97 
20 
9 
31 
46 
23 
42 
Bad Personal Habits 
1,510 
945 
565 
304 
49 
400 
349 
241 
167 
Alcoholism 
1,014 
725 
289 
242 
35 
309 
190 
174 
64 
Criminal tendencies .. 
83 
66 
17 
14 
1 
43 
13 
9 
3 
Immorality 
410 
152 
258 
47 
13 
47 
145 
58 
100 
Drug habit 
3 
2 
1 
1 
1 
1 
Social Maladjustments ., 
1,675 
1,103 
572 
185 
29 
763 
432 
155 
111 
Placed on probation .. 
530 
314 
216 
57 
8 
181 
129 
76 
79 
Prison term 
585 
381 
204 
42 
9 
337 
192 
2 
3 
Court record 
560 
408 
152 
86 
12 
245 
111 
77 
29 
1 The numbers given show those who were examined and found to be feeble-minded; others who were not exam- 
ined may have been. This probably accounts for the smaller number of parents given as being feeble-minded. 92 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
TABLE 6-B. EVIDENCES OF DEGENERACY FOUND IN 1,600 FAMILIES CARED FOR BY THE MASSA- 
CHUSETTS SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO CHILDREN 
B—Children 
Totals for 1,600 families 
Number having sp 
Widowered 
fathers 
500 
ecified 
degenerate co 
with: 
Arrested 
parents 
500 
ndition in families 
Separated, 
divorced or 
deserting parents 
600 
Degenerate condition 
reported 
All children 
1 child 
2 children 
3 or more 
children 
1 child 
2 children 
3 or more 
children 
1 child 
2 children 
3 or more 
children 
1 child 
2 children 
3 or more 
children 
Totals 
749 
594 
101 
54 
194 
39 
13 
220 
35 
30 
180 
27 
11 
Bad Physical Condition 
172 
156 
14 
2 
51 
5 
1 
62 
2 
1 
43 
7 
Crippled 
21 
20 
1 
6 
8 
6 
1 
Gonorrhea 
21 
18 
3 
6 
1 
5 
i 
7 
1 
Syphilis 
16 
14 
1 
1 
4 
1 
7 
1 
3 
Tuberculosis 
30 
26 
3 
1 
11 
2 
1 
9 
6 
1 
Other diseases 
84 
78 
6 
24 
1 
33 
i 
21 
4 
Defective Nervous Endowment. 
177 
154 
17 
6 
46 
7 
1 
52 
6 
3 
56 
4 
2 
Epilepsy 
16 
15 
1 
4 
2 
9 
1 
Feeble-mindedness1 
90 
75 
10 
5 
19 
5 
1 
33 
3 
O 
23 
2 
1 
Insanity 
6 
6 
2 
3 
1 
Psycho-neurosis 
4 
2 
2 
1 
2 
1 
Subnormal 
61 
56 
4 
1 
20 
14 
3 
22 
1 
1 
Bad Personal HaMts 
148 
128 
17 
3 
47 
10 
1 
39 
1 
2 
42 
6 
Alcoholism 
16 
16 
6 
6 
4 
Criminal tendencies 
27 
24 
1 
2 
12 
1 
i 
7 
1 
5 
Immorality 
105 
88 
16 
1 
29 
9 
26 
1 
1 
33 
6 
Social Maladjustments 
252 
156 
53 
43 
50 
17 
10 
67 
26 
24 
39 
10 
9 
Placed on probation 
147 
77 
33 
37 
16 
8 
6 
35 
20 
22 
26 
5 
9 
Prison term 
39 
31 
6 
2 
13 
1 
1 
12 
5 
1 
6 
Court record2 
66 
48 
14 
4 
21 
8 
3 
20 
1 
1 
7 
5 
1 The numbers given show those who were examined and found to be feeble-minded; others who were not exam- 
ined may have been. 
J In a good many eases the court records of the children were merely “against children as neglected.” CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
93 
TABLE 7. CONDITIONS LYING BACK OF THE NEGLECT OF CHILDREN IN FAMILIES CARED FOR BY 
THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO CHILDREN 
(Based on 300 Case Records Studied Intensively) 
Condition 
Parents 
reported 
Number Percent. 
Families in 
Widowered 
fathers 
which specified conditions 
Arrested 
parents 
Fathers Mothers 
were reported: 
Separated, 
divorced or 
deserting parents 
Fathers Mothers 
Total number of parents... 
500 
100 
100 
100 
100 
100 
100 
Degeneracy 
441 
88.2 
60 
84 
125 
74 
98 
Indicated by: 
Feeble-mindedness 
10 
2.0 
1 
1 
8 
Insanity 
1.6 
1 
1 
3 
3 
Poor stock 
22 
4.4 
4 
6 
8 
1 
3 
Subnormal mentality1 
13 
2.6 
2 
3 
7 
1 
Lack of responsibility 
6 
1.2 
6 
Sex immorality 
130 
26.0 
13 
10 
39 
17 
51 
Drunkenness 
227 
45.4 
32 
60 
63 
45 
27 
Other crimes 
25 
5.0 
1 
4 
4 
11 
5 
Broken Family 
509 
101.8 
8 
95 
97 
156 
153 
Due to: 
Desertion 
75 
15.0 
2 
16 
4 
40 
13 
Divorce 
.... 38 
7.6 
1 
1 
18 
18 
Mother away at work 
.... 47 
9.4 
20 
27 
Parent dead 
.... 13 
2.6 
10 
2 
1 
Parent in jail 
.... 137 
27.4 
1 
65 
67' 
1 
3 
Step-parent 
17 
3.4 
5 
8 
4 
Separation 
.... 162 
32.4 
3 
3 
78 
78 
Quarreling 
.... 20 
4.0 
10 
10 
Miscellaneous 
.... 13 
2.6 
2 
7 
4 
1 Subnormal mentality was checked when the parent showed indications of feeble-mindedness or insanity, but 
when no examination had been made. 94 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
TABLE 8. MEANS BY WHICH THE NEGLECT OF THE CHILDREN OF 300 FAMILIES HAD BEEN RE- 
PORTED TO THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO CHILDREN 
Means of assistance 
Number of times in which the speci- 
fied means of assistance were utilized 
for the benefit of families with: 
Separated, 
Widowered Arrested divorced or 
fathers parents deserting parents 
Total for 300 families 100 100 100 
Number 
Public Agencies 
38 
62 
23 
Overseer of Poor or State Board of Charity 
14 
5 
8 
1 
Police 
13 
38 
14 
Probation or parole officer 
18 
4 
10 
4 
Public School Officials 
16 
6 
4 
Attendance officer 
7 
2 
2 
Nurse 
2 
1 
1 
Teacher 
5 
3 
Not otherwise classified1 
3 
2 
i 
Charitable or Religious Agencies 
89 
30 
29 
30 
Relatives 
17 
12 
20 
Father 
5 
2 
Mother 
2 
9 
Other relatives 
17 
5 
9 
Neighbors and friends 
42 
7 
20 
15 
Anonymous 
5 
2 
9 
Not Otherunse Classified:2 
3 
3 
1 Includes 1 superintendent of schools, 1 official at the Placement Bureau, and 1 principal. 
a Includes 1 lawyer, The Lowney Co-operative Association, Commission on Training Camp Activities, 2 physicians 
and 1 daily newspaper. CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
95 
TABLE 9. CONDITIONS WHICH MADE SPECIAL CARE OF CHILDREN NECESSARY IN 1,600 FAM- 
ILIES CARED FOR BY THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY 
TO CHILDREN 
Injurious condition 
Total for 
Number 
1,600 families 
Per cent. 
Number of times in which specified con- 
ditions were reported in families with: 
Separated, 
Widowered Arrested divorced or 
fathers parents deserting parents 
500 500 600 
Total reports 
6,280 
100 
1,715 
2,087 
2,478 
Improver Treatment of Children 
2,447 
39.0 
627 
903 
917 
Physical neglect 
1,006 
16.0 
300 
383 
323 
Moral neglect 
456 
7.2 
92 
170 
193 
Non-support 
845 
13.5 
187 
312 
346 
Physical cruelty 
141 
2.2 
48 
38 
55 
Low Social Standards in the Family 
2,341 
37.3 
556 
923 
862 
Indicated by: 
Intemperance 
964 
15.4 
280 
423 
261 
Immorality (usually sexual) 
686 
10.9 
121 
244 
321 
Juvenile delinquency 
282 
4.5 
93 
87 
102 
Illegitimacy 
282 
4.5 
38 
110 
134 
Feeble-mindedness 
127 
2.0 
24 
59 
44 
Abnormal Family Group 
1,492 
23.8 
532 
261 
699 
Due to: 
Divorce 
2.5 
14 
22 
119 
Separation 
657 
10.5 
157 
500 
Widowhood 
54 
.9 
41 
13 
Widowerhood 
513 
8.2 
500 
11 
2 
Presence of lodgers 
113 
1.8 
18 
30 
65 96 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
TABLE 10. PREDOMINANT FACTORS FOUND BY AGENTS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY FOR 
THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO CHILDREN INDICATING THE NEED OF INTERVENTION 
FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE CHILDREN IN THE 1,600 FAMILIES STUDIED 
Factor showing need 
Total for 
Number 
16,000 families 
Per cent. 
Number in which the specified fac- 
tors showing need of intervention were 
found in families with: 
Separated, 
Widowered Arrested divorced or 
fathers parents deserting parents 
500 500 600 
Total factors 
. . 1,691 
100 
527 
540 
624 
Improper Treatment of the Children 
919 
54.3 
298 
277 
344 
Physical neglect 
. . 484 
28.6 
165 
156 
163 
Physical cruelty 
40 
2.4 
23 
8 
9 
Medical neglect 
58 
3.4 
24 
11 
23 
Non-support 
. . 310 
18.3 
78 
94 
138 
Neglect to support in marriage 
. . 294 
17.4 
73 
86 
135 
Neglect to support illegitimate children... 
16 
.9 
5 
8 
3 
Neglect to provide necessary special care.... 
27 
1.6 
8 
8 
11 
Low Social Standards 
. . 426 
25.2 
86 
141 
199 
Indicated by: 
Juvenile delinquency 
49 
2.9 
16 
8 
25 
Neglect of moral standards other than sex.. 
85 
5.0 
13 
45 
27 
Neglect of sex standards 
. . 292 
17.3 
57 
88 
147 
Not falling under any of above 
. . 346 
20.5 
143 
122 
81 CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
97 
CHART'S. TORMS OF NEGLECT « 300 CASE RECORDS OF 
THE M. S. P.C. C. 
PHYSICAL 
SUPERVISION 
MORAL 
SCHOOLING 
CRUELTY 
ARRESTED 
PARENTS. 
NON-SUPPORT 
BROKEN 
HOMES. 
WIDOWERS. 
COMPLETE DATA IS IN TABLE II. 98 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
TABLE 11. FORMS OF NEGLECT OF CHILDREN DISCOVERED BY THE AGENTS OF THE MASSA- 
CHUSETTS SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO CHILDREN 
(Based on 300 Case Records Studied Intensively) 
Form of neglect 
Total for 
Number 
300 families 
Per cent. 
Reports of specified forms of neglect in 
families with: 
Separated, 
Widowered Arrested divorced or 
fathers parents deserting parents 
100 100 100 
Total forms of neglect 
814 
100 
203 
346 
265 
Physical Neglect 
389 
47.8 
84 
176 
129 
Due to lack of: 
Clothing 
102 
12.5 
20 
44 
38 
Food 
118 
14.5 
25 
47 
46 
Shelter 
69 
8.5 
17 
48 
4 
Medical care 
45 
5.5 
15 
15 
15 
Cleanliness 
55 
6.8 
7 
22 
26 
Physical Cruelty or Abuse 
20 
2.5 
5 
2 
13 
Moral Neglect (contact with vice) 
150 
18.4 
35 
69 
46 
Neglect of Schooling 
59 
7.2 
15 
23 
21 
Absence of Supervision 
155 
19.0 
39 
76 
40 
Non-support 
41 
5.0 
25 
16 
No Neglect Found 
14 
14 CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
99 
TABLE 12. TYPES OF AGENCIES1 ENLISTED BY THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY FOR THE PRE- 
VENTION OF CRUELTY TO CHILDREN IN DEALING WITH FAMILIES OF NEGLECTED CHILDREN 
(Based, on 800 Case Records Studied Intensively) 
Types of agencies 
Total for 
Number 
300 families 
Per cent. 
Number of times specified agencies were 
enlisted in families broken by: 
Separated, 
Widowered Arrested divorced or 
fathers parents deserting parents 
100 100 100 
Total agencies 
. 685 
100 
153 
290 
242 
Home finding and child placing 
106 
15.5 
27 
29 
50 
Reforming and rescuing 
14 
2.0 
4 
6 
4 
Disciplinary 
175 
25.5 
45 
75 
55 
Aid and training in the home 
110 
16.1 
24 
47 
39 
Care of health 
113 
16.5 
22 
42 
49 
Protective agencies other than the M. S. P. C. C. 
15 
2.2 
2 
4 
9 
Educational 
29 
4.2 
4 
17 
8 
Miscellaneous 
11 
1.6 
2 
2 
7 
Shelter and temporary care 
110 
16.1 
21 
68 
21 
Guardianship 
2 
.3 
2 
1 The M. S. P. C. C. handled the cases without enlisting any other agency in 30 families of widowers and in 6 fam- 
ilies of separated, divorced or deserting parents. 100 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
TABLE 13. COURT ACTIONS INSTITUTED WHILE 1,600 FAMILIES 
WERE UNDER THE CARE OF THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 
FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO CHILDREN 
Action 
Total for 
1,600 families 
m C 
ja o 
s 
Z CL 
Widowered 
fathers—500 3 $ c 
P P O' 
Arrested 3 ft 2} 
parents—500 si o' 
® 3 O 
M S Mi 
Separated, 
divorced or SiPW 
deserting "So 
parents—600 3 T 
Totals 
940 
100 
234 
445 
261 
Change of Status of Child as Against 
Parent 
627 
66.7 
182 
288 
157 
New control for better care of child. 
530 
56.4 
148 
250 
132 
Against children as neglected 
377 
40.1 
104 
189 
84 
Against parents for neglect 
96 
10.2 
18 
43 
35 
Guardianship 
52 
5.5 
23 
17 
12 
Adoption 
5 
.5 
3 
1 
1 
New control for discipline of child.. 
97 
10.3 
34 
38 
25 
Juvenile delinquency 
69 
7.3 
22 
31 
16 
Waywardness 
21 
2.2 
9 
6 
6 
School offense 
6 
.6 
2 
1 
3 
Larceny 
1 
.1 
1 
Discipline of Parents 
313 
33.3 
52 
157 
104 
Because of: 
Non-support of family 
105 
11.2 
20 
55 
30 
Drunkenness 
56 
6.0 
9 
43 
4 
Assault 
16 
1.7 
3 
12 
1 
Rape 
7 
.7 
5 
1 
1 
Incest 
6 
.6 
4 
1 
1 
Adultery 
4 
.4 
1 
2 
1 
Bigamy 
1 
.1 
1 
Illegal cohabitation 
18 
1.9 
3 
8 
7 
Other immoral acts 
34 
3.6 
2 
18 
14 
Non-support of illegitimate children 
11 
1.2 
3 
2 
6 
Desertion 
8 
.9 
3 
5 
Larceny 
4 
.4 
2 
2 
Liquor selling 
5 
.5 
2 
3 
Disorderly conduct 
6 
.6 
i 
4 
1 
Continuance by court 
14 
1.5 
14 
Not otherwise classified 
18 
1.9 
i 
4 
13 101 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
TABLE 14. ACTIONS TAKEN BY THE M. S. P. C. C — 
1,600 FAMILIES 
1,600 families 
Action 
§3 g 
I ® 
£ 0< 
Widowered j> 
fathers—500 « 
o' 
3 
Arrested ® 
parents—500 £ 
w 
Separated, 2 
divorced or " 
deserting © 
parents—600 ** 
Totals 
1,771 
100 
517 
635 
619 
Children Cared for in Families 
436 
24.6 
126 
176 
134 
Remained with their parents 
Temporarily withdrawn and re- 
95 
5.4 
18 
51 
26 
turned to parents 
64 
3.6 
9 
33 
22 
Placed in homes of relatives 
145 
8.2 
59 
45 
41 
Placed in homes of strangers 
Placed by public agencies 
21 
1.2 
15 
6 
State Board of Charity 
104 
5.9 
23 
43 
38 
Trustees for Children 
7 
.4 
2 
4 
1 
Children Cared for in Institutions... 
277 
15.6 
68 
156 
53 
Temporary custodial care 
222 
12.5 
54 
137 
31 
Home, Destitute Catholic Children 
212 
12.0 
46 
137 
29 
Catholic Home at Brightside 
3 
.2 
3 
Camp for Crippled Children 
1 
.05 
i 
Deaconness Home 
1 
.05 
1 
Daily Industrial School 
3 
.2 
3 
Working Boy’s Home 
1 
.05 
1 
Ingleside Corporation 
1 
.05 
1 
State Schools for Defectives 
19 
1.1 
4 
9 
6 
School for Feeble-minded 
17 
1.0 
4 
8 
5 
School for Deaf 
2 
.1 
1 
1 
Reformatory 
36 
2.0 
10 
10 
16 
County Training School 
9 
.5 
2 
1 
6 
State Industrial School 
19 
1.1 
1 
9 
9 
House of Good Shepherd 
Miscellaneous Actions (children in 
8 
.5 
7 
1 
families or in institutions) 
806 
45.5 
244 
250 
312 
Supervision by M. S. P. C. C 
94 
5.3 
19 
45 
30 
Supervision by other agencies 
105 
5.9 
28 
36 
41 
Sent to other private organizations 
110 
6.3 
45 
22 
43 
Assistance by Overseers of Poor... 
56 
3.2 
7 
26 
23 
Medical needs met 
80 
4.5 
22 
31 
27 
Military or State aid given 
3 
.2 
1 
2 
Massachusetts Hospital School ... 
3 
.2 
3 
Cases dropped after improvement.. 
320 
18.1 
97 
90 
138 
Cases continued 
35 
2.0 
22 
13 
No Specific Action Taken 
252 
14.2 
79 
53 
120 
Evidence not obtainable 
97 
5.5 
25 
24 
48 
Complaint unwarranted 
54 
3.1 
21 
6 
27 
Family disappeared 
57 
3.2 
12 
15 
30 
No action possible or necessary... 
43 
2.4 
21 
7 
15 
Removed to another state 
1 
.05 
1 102 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
TABLE 15. FINAL DISPOSITION OF THE CHILDREN IN FAMILIES CARED FOR BY THE MASSACHU- 
SETTS SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO CHILDREN 
(Based on 300 Case Records Studied Intensively) 
Final disposition 
Total for 
Number 
300 cases 
Per cent. 
Number of specified final dispositions of 
the children in families of: 
Separated, 
Widowered Arrested divorced or 
fathers parents deserting parents 
100 100 100 
Totals 
100 
126 
125 
125 
Child left with or returned to parents2 
.. . . 143 
38.0 
41 
43 
59 
Child removed to home of other relatives.... 
58 
15.4 
29 
12 
17 
Child Cared for by Strangers 
In: 
.... 175 
46.5 
56 
70 
49 
Boarding home 
17.0 
31 
11 
22 
Free home 
2.7 
2 
5 
3 
Adopted home 
1.9 
2 
5 
Institution3 
25.0 
21 
49 
24 
1 In 76 families more than one child was cared for. 
2 Conditions in the family were improved as follows: In 56 families by discipline; 38 by instruction; 2 by warn- 
ing's ; 7 by placing housekeepers in homes; 2 by placing relatives in homes; and 19 by economic relief. Data were 
not given for 19 families. 
3 Often for temporary custodial care; children later placed in families. CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
103 
TABLE 16. ESTIMATES OF SUCCESS IN TREATMENT OF FAMILIES CARED FOR BY THE MASSA- 
CHUSETTS SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO CHILDREN 
(Based on 800 Case Records Studied Intensively) 
Estimate of success 
Total 
Number 
families 
Per cent. 
Number of specified treatments in fam- 
ilies in which there were : 
Separated, 
Widowered Arrested divorced or 
fathers parents deserting parents 
Totals 
300 
100 
100 
100 
100 
Purpose accomplished 
108 
36.0 
33 
33 
42 
Improvement 
Ill 
37.0 
28 
46 
37 
Failure because plans were blocked 
work 
or did not 
32 
10.6 
8 
14 
10 
Case transferred to other agency .... 
31 
10.3 
14 
7 
10 
No action1 
6.0 
17 
1 
1 In five of these cases the complaint was unwarranted, in four cases the evidence was not obtainable, and in one 
action was stopped by the tragic death of the mother and child. Various other reasons accounted for the lack of ac- 
tion in the remaining cases. PART III 
PUBLIC INTERVENTION IN MASSACHUSETTS FOR 
THE PROTECTION OF CHILDREN IN NEED OF 
SPECIAL CARE 
BY BERTHA HILLS STYLES, A GRADUATE STUDENT 
OF SIMMONS COLLEGE, WHO WAS HOLDING A 
FELLOWSHIP IN THE RESEARCH DEPART- 
MENT OF THE WOMEN’S EDUCATIONAL 
AND INDUSTRIAL UNION 
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 
1919-1920 PUBLIC INTERVENTION IN MASSACHUSETTS FOR 
THE PROTECTION OF CHILDREN IN NEED OF 
SPECIAL CARE 
Bertha Hills Styles 
A knowledge of Massachusetts statutes enacted for the pro- 
tection of children and of their interpretation by the courts is 
required in order to understand fully the case records on which 
these reports are based. While Massachusetts falls short in sev- 
eral respects of providing ideal protection for all youthful citi- 
zens, she is, in many ways, in advance of other states in her 
activities for the safeguarding of children in danger of neglect. 
(Chart I, frontispiece.) 
We may consider first what means Massachusetts has adopted 
to protect the child from parental neglect and abandonment and 
to provide for the child a normal home environment. Massa- 
chusetts is particularly well equipped with statutes supplement- 
ing the common law and defining more clearly the powers of 
the State to remove children from undesirable homes. When a 
complaint is made that any child under sixteen years of age 
within the jurisdiction of a police, district or municipal court 
“by reason of orphanage or of neglect, crime, cruelty, insanity 
or drunkenness, or other vice of its parents, is growing up with- 
out education or without salutary control, or without proper 
physical care, or in circumstances exposing him to lead an idle 
and dissolute life, or is dependent upon public charity,” a precept 
may be issued to bring the child before the court.1 At the same 
time a notice and summons are sent to the Division of Child 
Guardianship of the Department of Public Welfare, and a sum- 
mons is issued to at least one of the parents of the child, or in 
case no parent is found, to its guardian, requiring the legal guard- 
ian of the child and a member of the Department to appear be- 
fore the court and to show just cause why the child should not 
be committed to the State Division of Child Guardianship or 
be otherwise provided for. If at the hearing the allegations in 
the complaint are found to be true, the complaint may be con- 
tinued and the child placed in the care of some suitable person 
or charitable society or he may be committed to the Division of 
Child Guardianship until he becomes twenty-one years of age 
1 General Statutes, Massachusetts, 1909, Chap. 81, Sec. 1. 108 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
or until the object of his commitment has been accomplished.1 
An appeal from the order of the lower court may be made to 
the superior court for civil business and the child placed in the 
care of a suitable person or agency pending the determination 
of the appeal.2 
Moreover, a criminal action may be brought in the lower 
court against the parent or guardian of a child who could be 
taken away on the ground of neglect and, in case of conviction, 
a severe penalty may be imposed.3 In a large number of cases, 
however, the parent is put on probation. This method of dis- 
posing of these cases allows the court through its probation offi- 
cers to maintain constant supervision over the family life and 
to assist in its rehabilitation. No leniency, however, is shown the 
parent who abandons his child. This crime is severely punished 
in Massachusetts by imprisonment for two to five years, while 
an accomplice who knowingly assists in abandoning the child 
may be fined not more than $100 or sufifer similar imprisonment.4 
In many cases a neglected child may be removed from the control 
of its parents through a civil procedure in the probate court. A 
petition for guardianship may be filed in probate and notice 
served on the parent or guardian to appear at court at the time 
set for the hearing.® 
Our ideas, however, of what constitutes a neglected child 
are by no means clear. A “neglect” case rarely goes beyond the 
court of original jurisdiction and consequently we find almost no 
definitions of the higher courts of what constitutes neglect. As 
a general rule, however, the lower courts will not prosecute a 
parent nor threaten to remove his child because the parent has 
failed to secure for his child physical care above the average 
standards of the community in which he lives.6 On the other 
hand, the court is quick to admit evidence of moral neglect which 
is exposing the child “to lead an idle and dissolute life.”7 It 
must not be supposed, however, that court proceedings need al- 
1Revised Laws, Massachusetts, 1902, Chap. 83, Sec. 3. Parents have no 
Inherent property right in their minor children of which they can in no way 
be deprived without their consent, and though they are the natural guardians 
of their children, and entitled to their custody, with the right to appropriate 
their earnings, and may recover damages for any interference with their 
rights by a wrongdoer, this right is not an absolute and uncontrollable one, 
and will not be enforced to the detriment or destruction of the happiness and 
well-being of the child. Purinton v. Jamrock (1907), 195 Mass. 187. 
* Supra, p. 6. 
* General Statutes, Massachusetts, 1911, Chap. 456, Sec. 1. 
‘Revised Laws, Massachusetts, 1902, Chap. 83, Sec. 11. 
6 The Revised Laws, Massachusetts, 1907, Chap. 145, Sec. 1. 
6 Baker, Hon. Harvey H. “What Constitutes a Neglected Child Under 
the Massachusetts Statutes,” p. 4. 
7 Ibid., p. 5. CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
109 
ways result in even a temporary separation of the child from its 
parents. The court recognizes that the child living with his 
natural parents has the most nearly normal life and for that 
reason the parents are in many instances allowed to take the child 
home on trial before any separation occurs. In other cases the 
children are returned after a temporary separation, during which 
the family has been able to rehabilitate itself. If it seems prob- 
able that the proper adjustment can be made without removing 
the child from the home, the appearance of the child in court is 
often avoided by proceeding against the parent for neglect.1 The 
court, moreover, may well keep a neglect case open until the 
family has shown that it no longer needs public supervision.2 
As early as 1880 Massachusetts embodied in a statute the 
belief that a private home provided the atmosphere most condu- 
cive to the welfare of a child and at that time adopted the placing- 
out system for its wards.3 It has continued to follow this policy 
to the present day and in addition keeps constant supervision 
over all homes in which children are placed. Every boarding 
home for children is required to secure an annual license which 
regulates the sanitary conditions and the number 6f children to 
be boarded on the premises at one time. Regular inspection is 
maintained and severe penalties are imposed for violating the 
terms of the license.4 
Requests are frequently received from persons who wish 
to adopt a child deprived for one reason or another of his natural 
parents. Such a transfer of the permanent control of a child 
from one person to another is open to grave abuses and it is to 
protect both the child and his parents from a hasty and ill-con- 
sidered adoption that statutory provision has been made to regu- 
late this procedure.5 A petition to adopt any child must be filed 
in probate court and the consent of both parents or guardian and 
of the child himself, if he is more than fourteen years of age, is 
required.6 A parent forfeits his rights, however, if he is insane, 
or if he has wilfully deserted and neglected his child for two 
years preceding the date of the petition, or if he has been con- 
victed of lewd conduct, or of drunkenness three times within one 
1 General Statutes, Massachusetts, 1916, Chap. 243. 
2 Ibid., p. 6. 
® Richardson, Anne B. “The Massachusetts System of Caring for State 
Minor Wards.” Report of Committee on History of Child Saving Work, 
Twentieth National Conference of Charities and Correction, Chicago, 1893, 
pp. 54-67. 
‘Revised Laws, Massachusetts, 1902, Chap. 83, Secs. 1-8. 
“Revised Laws, Massachusetts, 1902, Chap. 154, Sec. 1. 
4 General Statutes, Massachusetts, 1904, Chap. 302, Sec. 1. 110 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
year.1 It is necessary to publish the petition in newspapers for 
three successive weeks, and the hearing of the petition in court 
must be open to the public.2 
The child of divorced parents, however, receives no such 
careful attention when as a result of divorce he is deprived of 
a normal home life and placed by order of the court in the custody 
of but one of his parents. It is true that the law requires that 
the welfare of the child shall be the determining factor in his 
disposal in a divorce decree3 and that upon the petition of either 
parents4 thereafter the custody of the child may be changed as 
the circumstances of the parents and the benefit of the child may 
require.5 However well the intent of this provision may be 
realized in the average divorce case, the very nature of the un- 
contested divorce prevents any discussion of the disposal of the 
child and deprives him at the outset of whatever meager protec- 
tion this provision may afford in a contested divorce.6 Although 
some time may elapse before Massachusetts will provide con- 
tinuous supervision for all children of divorced parents, the func- 
tion of the divorce proctor7 in default cases should immediately 
be extended to protect the children involved in such cases from 
the almost inevitable evil attending them. 
An Adequate Income for the Family with Children 
No one will deny that a home life suitable for children can- 
not be provided without an adequate income for the family.8 
No state government at the present time guarantees to any family 
the receipt of such an income, but it has long recognized the right 
of the child to the support and care of its parents. At common 
law there is no legal obligation resting on the parent to support 
the child, but statutory provisions compelling the parent to sup- 
port his offspring are now almost universal in this country. Mas- 
sachusetts in the uniform desertion act of 19119 has attempted 
1 General Statutes, Massachusetts, 1907, Chap. 405, Sec. 1. 
2 Revised Laws, Massachusetts, 1902, Chap. 154, Secs. 5-6. 
3 Supra, p. 3. 
*Or of a next friend. Mass. Gen. Law, 1921, Chap. 208, Sec. 28. 
6 Revised Laws, Massachusetts, 1902, Chap. 152, Sec. 25. 
6 Carstens, C. C. (Unpublished lecture at Conference of Research De- 
partment, Women’s Educational and Industrial Union, March 8, 1920.) 
7 The proctor is an attorney who intervenes in divorce cases under any 
assignment from the court to protect the interests of the State. Pew states 
in this country provide for such proctors. Smith, Reginald H., ‘‘Justice and 
the Poor,” Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Bulletin 
No. 13 (1919), pp. 102-103. 
8 “Standards of Child Welfare.” Children’s Bureau Publication No. 60 
(1919), p. 440. 
9 General Statutes, Massachusetts, 1911, Chap. 456. CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
by criminal proceedings to enforce the State’s interest in the 
support of the family and at the same time to provide directly 
for neglected wives and children.1 Under this act any husband 
may be punished by a fine not exceeding $200 or by imprison- 
ment for not more than one year, or by both 'fine and imprison- 
ment if he deserts his wife or minor children without just cause 
and leaves them without making provision for their support, or 
if he wilfully allows his children to become neglected.2 The fine 
imposed may be paid to the probation officer for the support of 
the family.3 The maintenance of the wife and children pending 
trial is often provided for by a temporary order for support.4 
The framers of this measure realizing that imprisonment with 
a payment of but fifty cents each day might serve only to aggra- 
vate a situation already serious, provided that the deserting 
husband might be put on probation and made to pay a certain 
sum to the probation officer from time to time for the support 
of his family.5 Prompt action under this statute against a de- 
serting father and subsequent supervision of the family by the 
probation officer provide preventive as well as punitive measures 
for the protection of the children. 
Many children, however, are deprived of an adequate in- 
come through no misdeed of their parents, but solely on account 
of the death or disability of the natural breadwinners. The be- 
lief that a home life and a mother’s care are of inestimable value 
in the rearing of a child is now widespread and has resulted in 
legislation providing for the payment of “outdoor relief” to 
needy families deprived of support by the death or disability of 
the husbands. Massachusetts early joined the pioneer states in 
establishing a mother’s aid law and since 1913 has been providing 
this form of relief.8 Any mother with dependent children under 
fourteen years may receive aid from the State, although the 
unmarried mother of an illegitimate child is in practice deprived 
of state support. The mother applies to the overseers of the 
poor of the town in which she lives and they in turn determine 
both the fitness of the mother and the need for public relief to 
assist her in this work.7 The Department of Public Welfare has 
extensive supervisory powers and may determine the policies 
1Knowlton, C. J., in Commonwealth v. Acker (1908), 197 Mass. 191, 193. 
2 General Statutes, Massachusetts, 1911, Chap. 456, Sec. 1. 
3 General Statutes, Massachusetts, 1911, Chap. 456, Sec. 2. 
4 General Statutes, Massachusetts, 1911, Chap. 456, Sec. 4. 
6 General Statutes, Massachusetts, 1911, Chap. 456, Sec. 5. 
8 General Statutes, Massachusetts, 1913, Chap. 763. 
'General Statutes, Massachusetts, 1913, Chap. 763, Sec. 2. 112 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
relating to mothers’ aid.1 The Commonwealth reimburses the 
town in which the mother receives relief for one-third of the 
amount given, and if the mother has no settlement the town is 
reimbursed for the total amount of the aid.2 The amount of the 
aid is based upon a family budget and varies with the needs and 
size of the family and with the prevailing cost of living. The 
law specifically states that the receipt of mothers’ aid does not 
pauperize the recipients, but Massachusetts does insist that each 
family who applies for aid shall be in need and thereby fails to 
recognize the inherent right of the dependent mother to public 
assistance in the rearing of her children.3 
The Special Court for Children 
There is, however, a large body of children whose protective 
care has not sufficed to prevent them from committing an offense 
against the State. Public opinion has long recognized that society 
is in large measure responsible for the early delinquency of its 
children and has, therefore, sought means to protect the unfor- 
tunate child from the unwholesome contact with court procedure. 
Although Massachusetts was one of the first states to provide 
for the hearing of children’s cases apart from those of adults, 
Illinois first passed a specific state law authorizing the establish- 
ment of a special court for the disposition of children’s cases. 
Since 1906, however, Massachusetts has provided by law for 
juvenile courts for children under seventeen years of age.4 This 
act provides for the treatment of a child not as a criminal, but 
as a young person in need of aid and guidance. Although the 
juvenile session is a part of the criminal court, the traditional 
forbidding aspects of a criminal trial are eliminated by infor- 
mality of procedure, by the use of the summons instead of a 
warrant, and by having the parties to a case discuss the entire 
matter in a friendly fashion devoid of technicalities. When a 
child less than fourteen years old has been committed under 
this act he may not be held for trial in a lock-up, but must be 
put in charge of a probation officer or of the Division of Child 
Guardianship. Meanwhile the probation officer is sent to inves- 
tigate the home and to determine what social factors have been 
influential in causing the delinquency of the child. A summons 
1 General Statutes, Massachusetts, 1913, Chap. 763, Sec. 5. 
2 General Statutes, Massachusetts, 1913, Chap. 763, Sec. 6. 
8 The Danish law_specifically states that every mother of a child under 
14 years, whose property is less than a certain amount, is entitled to a pub- 
lic grant. 
4 General Statutes, Massachusetts, 1906, Chap. 413. 113 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
is issued to the parent to appear at court at the time set for the 
trial and to show cause why the child should not be declared 
delinquent. If the child is declared to be wayward1 rather than 
delinquent he must be placed in care of the probation officer, but 
if he is found to be delinquent he may be committed to the care 
of the State Division of Child Guardianship instead of being 
placed on probation.2 
The belief that a knowledge of the social and economic 
conditions is indispensable to the adequate treatment of each 
case has resulted in the appointment of the probation officer to 
investigate the home environment of each child.3 The examina- 
tion of each child by an expert psychologist and physician and 
the consideration of his diagnosis by the judge as evidence, is 
an even more recent development of the attempt on the part of 
the State to discover the exact cause of delinquency in the child 
and to provide the proper method of correcting the defect. Al- 
though the Judge Baker Foundation has amply demonstrated the 
need for public officials to examine the juvenile delinquent, no 
such agents have been appointed in Massachusetts courts to 
assume this responsibility.4 
The problem of the juvenile delinquent and of the neglected 
child is often in large measure a family rather than an individual 
problem and involves in many instances the prosecution of the 
parents through the lower criminal court or a petition for guard- 
ianship in the probate court. A single case, therefore, may 
present angles which require the services of both civil and crim- 
inal courts and of different judges, with a consequent duplica- 
tion of effort, waste of time,5 and a lack of thorough understand- 
ing of the problem. To obviate these difficulties domestic rela- 
tions or family courts have been created which have jurisdiction 
over all problems of the family. Massachusetts, however, makes 
no provision for family courts. For the convenience of the judge 
of the Boston municipal court and for the more careful considera- 
tion of domestic cases a domestic relations session of the munici- 
1 General Statutes, Massachusetts, 1906, Chap. 413, Sec. 1. A wayward 
child is construed to mean a boy or girl between the ages of 7 and 17, who 
habitually associates with vicious and immoral persons or who is growing 
up in circumstances exposing him or her to lead an immoral, vicious or 
criminal life. 
2 General Statutes, Massachusetts. 1906, Chap. 413, Sec. 8. 
5 General Statutes, Massachusetts, 1906, Chap. 413, Sec. 7. 
* The Judge Baker Foundation established in memory of the late Judge 
Harvey H. Baker of the Boston juvenile court and supported by private 
subscription assists the Boston juvenile court in the mental and physical 
examination of juvenile offenders. 
5 Delay is now eliminated in the appeal of juvenile cases by the estab- 
lishment of a special juvenile session in the superior court. General Statutes, 
Massachusetts, 1916, Chap. 243. 114 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
pal court was established in Boston in 1912. This court, how- 
ever, confines its attention to criminal prosecutions in desertion, 
non-support, and illegitimacy cases and has direct authority over 
no children except those of the unmarried mothers. Action is 
brought in this court against the parent for neglect or for con- 
tributing to the delinquency of a child.1 The lack of concurrent 
jurisdiction with the juvenile court over neglected children handi- 
caps the domestic relations court in these cases. It may happen 
that a child has been removed from his parents by the juvenile 
court and an action brought later in the domestic relations session 
against the parent for neglect. If the parent is convicted and 
put on probation the court has nothing upon which to work in 
a family already deprived of its children. On the other hand, 
the case against the parent in the domestic relations court may 
be dismissed and the parent may then make contest for the re- 
covery of his children taken from him by the juvenile court. The 
creation of a single court to deal with all family questions would 
eliminate these conflicts in jurisdiction and would provide the 
proper medium for a thorough and painstaking consideration of 
every case. 
The Care of the Illegitimate Child 
The illegitimate child has long suffered neglect at the hands 
of his parents and of society. It is now a well-known fact that 
the infant mortality rate among babies born out of wedlock is 
without exception higher than that among legitimate children2 
and it is equally well known that the dependent and delinquent 
classes are in large measure recruited from the ranks of the 
illegitimate. However, the recognition of the illegitimate child 
as a social problem3 and the institution of preventive measures 
for his benefit are of comparatively recent origin. 
The illegitimate child at common law is described as filius 
nullius, the child of nobody, and as such could inherit from no 
one. This country, however, has done much to alter the civil 
status of the child born out of wedlock with reference to his 
relation with his mother, but until the last few years little has 
been done to establish the right of the illegitimate child to support 
by his father. The illegitimate child in Massachusetts may now 
inherit from his mother as if he were legitimate,4 takes the settle- 
1 General Statutes, Massachusetts, 1906, Chap. 413, Sec. 13. 
2 Lundberg, Emma O., and Lenroot, Katherine F. “Illegitimacy as a 
Child Welfare Problem,” Part I, Children’s Bureau Publication No. 66, p. 27. 
3 Ibid., p. 7. 
‘Revised Laws, Massachusetts, 1902, Chap. 133, Sec. 3-5. 115 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
ment of his mother,1 and is in her care and custody.2 The diffi- 
cult position of the unmarried mother is recognized in this State 
by the provision that she may give up her child while it is less 
than two years of age to the Department of Public Welfare.3 
Moreover, the consent of the mother alone must be given to her 
child’s adoption,4 while the child is protected by the provision 
that a record of the fact that he is illegitimate shall at no time 
appear upon the papers of adoption,5 or in his birth registration 
unless his status has been legally determined.6 An illegitimate 
child whose parents have subsequently married and whose father 
has acknowledged him as his child is considered legitimate.7 
The common law relation between an illegitimate child and 
his father has been altered by both English and American legis- 
lation mainly for the purpose of forcing the father to support 
the child.8 These statutes, based upon the poor relief system 
and partaking of the nature of bastardy legislation, were intro- 
duced in America at an early period9 and until the last few years 
have remained substantially unchanged. Prior to 1913 Massachu- 
setts relied almost wholly upon principles embodied in the law of 
1785 to provide for the paternal support of the illegitimate child. 
In 1913, however, a law was passed making it a criminal offense 
for a person not her husband to “get a woman with child,” and 
providing that a man found guilty of this offense should be forced 
to contribute reasonably to the support of the child during his 
minority as if the child were his legitimate offspring.10 Pro- 
ceedings may be started in any municipal, police, or district court, 
or where no such court exists, before a trial justice.11 The mother 
or the State Department of Public Welfare, if the mother has no 
settlement, may make complaint immediately after the child is 
conceived,12 but the defendant is protected against blackmail by 
postponement of an adjudication until the mother is at least six 
months pregnant or until the child is born.13 To care for the 
I General Statutes, Massachusetts, 1911, Chap. 669, Sec. 1. 
* General Statutes, Massachusetts, 1911, Chap. 669, Sec. 1. 
5 Revised Laws, Massachusetts, 1902, Chap. 83, Sec. 13. 
* Revised Laws, Massachusetts, 1902, Chap. 154, Sec. 2. 
5 General Statutes, Massachusetts, 1904, Chap. 302. 
• General Statutes, Massachusetts, 1912, Chap. 280, Sec. 2. 
7 Revised Laws, Massachusetts, 1902, Chap. 133, Sec. 5. 
• Freund, Ernst. “Illegitimacy Laws of the United States and Certain 
Foreign Countries,” Children’s Bureau Publication No. 42, p. 25. 
»Ibid., p. 28. 
10 General Statutes, Massachusetts, 1913, Chap. 563, Sec. 6. 
II General Statutes, Massachusetts, 1913, Chap. 563, Sec. 1. 
ls General Statutes, Massachusetts, 1913, Chap. 563, Sec. 1. 
13 General Statutes, Massachusetts, 1913, Chap. 563, Sec. 2. 116 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
mother and child during confinement the court may order that 
the defendant pay a certain sum of money to the mother and for 
failure to comply with this order may commit the defendant to 
jail for contempt of court for a term not exceeding two months.1 
After the child is born the father is liable for his support and 
maintenance and for failure to comply may be prosecuted under 
the uniform desertion act of 1911.2 If, however, the court is 
satisfied that no living child will be born, or that the defendant 
and the mother have married each other and the child has, there- 
fore, become or will become the legitimate offspring of the de- 
fendant, or that adequate provision has been made for the main- 
tenance of the child, the complaint may be dismissed and no 
further complaint can be maintained.3 The stipulation that the 
court may dismiss the case if adequate provision has been made 
for the maintenance of the illegitimate child is open to serious 
abuse. Such a provision is indispensable in order that the father 
of an illegitimate child may make an immediate settlement for the 
future support of his child, but its application should be confined 
to cases in which the amount provided will actually support the 
child during his minority and should not be allowed to include 
settlements below such an adequate amount. 
This law, although so great an improvement upon the statutes 
formerly in force, falls far short of providing adequate supervi- 
sion for the illegitimate child. It recognizes the right of the 
child to the support of his father, but it fails to face squarely the 
proposition that the illegitimate child stands in need of the special 
protection of the State. Minnesota, on the other hand, has taken 
this radical step4 and provides for county child welfare boards 
to act as guardians to all illegitimate children and to start pro- 
ceedings to determine paternity. Massachusetts, however, leaves 
the institution of proceedings to the woman involved and makes, 
moreover, no provision for the public guardianship and supervi- 
sion of the illegitimate child0 while still in the care of his mother.6 
1 General Statutes, Massachusetts, 1913, Chap. 563, Sec. 4. 
2 General Statutes, Massachusetts, 1913, Chap. 563, Sec. 6-7. 
3 General Statutes, Massachusetts, 1913, Chap. 563, Sec. 3. 
* General Statutes, Minnesota, 1917, Chap. 194, Secs. 2-5. 
5 General Statutes, Massachusetts, 1913, Chap. 456, provides that the 
father may be put on probation for a period not exceeding two years, during 
which time the probation officer may see that he carries out the order of 
the court. Subsequent to this period of probation, however, the mother 
must enter a complaint under the uniform desertion act if the father fails 
to support the illegitimate child. 
6 Revised Laws, Massachusetts, 1902, Chap. 83, Secs. 17-18, provides 
that any person receiving a child under three years of age for board or to 
secure adoption for it shall learn if possible if the child is illegitimate and 
if so must report the fact to the State Department of Public Welfare. The 
agents of the State Department of Public Welfare have the express right 
to enter and inspect any building if they believe an illegitimate child is 
mistreated therein. CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
117 
No move has been made in Massachusetts to allow the father 
to assume the custody of his illegitimate child nor to provide that 
the illegitimate child shall bear the name of the father. To 
enforce by legislation these natural rights which, however just, 
are contrary to and incompatible with existing social sentiment 
and which, moreover, involve legal difficulties almost insurmount- 
able, serves only to invite disrespect for the law and to promote 
no permanent good for the child.1 In the majority of cases a 
system of public guardianship and supervision will create a 
happier environment for the illegitimate child than will be found 
in a home which an unwilling father may provide for a child 
towards whom he feels no natural affection. 
Administrative Agencies. The Probation System 
The probation system in Massachusetts provides a public 
agency for the protection of children in need of special care. 
Since 1906 the justice of the Boston juvenile court has been 
authorized to appoint two regular probation officers, and as many 
deputy probation officers to serve without salary as he deems 
desirable.2 In 1908 the appointment of a special probation officer 
for juvenile offenders was provided for the Springfield police 
court3 and for the first district court of Eastern Middlesex in 
1912,4 while the central district court of Worcester has possessed 
a similar privilege since 1907.5 In 1908 the justices of all police, 
district and municipal courts whose judicial districts have a pop- 
ulation of less than 125,000 were authorized to appoint special 
probation officers and volunteer deputy officers for wayward and 
delinquent children.6 The State Commissioner on Probation has 
authority to supervise all probation work for children and to 
make all necessary inquiries and recommendations therefor.7 
Although the State Commission has made constant use of 
its recommendatory powers to urge the appointment of special 
probation officers for children,8 few courts have taken advantage 
of this opportunity to prevent delinquency in children. In 1918 
only twenty-one such probation officers were holding office in 
1 Freund, Ernst. “Illegitimacy Laws of the United States and Certain 
Foreign Countries,” Children’s Bureau Publication No. 42, p. 58. 
2 General Statutes, Massachusetts, 1906, Chap. 489, Sec. 6. 
3 General Statutes, Massachusetts, 1908, Chap. 190. 
* General Statutes, Massachusetts, 1912, Chap. 664. 
8 General Statutes, Massachusetts, 1907, Chap. 223. 
8 General Statutes, Massachusetts, 1908, Chap. 637, Secs. 1-2. 
7 General Statutes, Massachusetts, 1906, Chap. 413, Sec. 14. 
8 Annual Report of the Massachusetts Commission on Probation for 
1917 (pp. 21, 22) and 1918 (p. 28). 118 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
this State.1 Too much stress cannot be laid upon the importance 
to the unfortunate child of adequate probation service. It is 
through the probation officer that the court exercises its powers 
of guardianship over the child within its care and through his 
aid and guidance that the delinquent child is protected from 
commitment to a reformatory.2 Moreover, Massachusetts law 
has given the court authority to deal with the wayward child3 
who has not yet committed an offense but over whom the court 
may exercise its supervision through the probation officer.4 The 
wayward child cannot be punished, but he may be placed on 
probation or treated as a neglected child.5 Little use, however, 
can be made of this preventive measure until every court in 
Massachusetts appoints an adequate number of special officers 
to care for juvenile offenders. 
The Overseers of the Poor, and the State Division of Child 
Guardianship 
The administrative government of Massachusetts is confined 
largely to the individual town and to the State itself, while prac- 
tically no powers of administration are retained by the county 
units. A large part of the care of children in need of special 
protection therefore is in the control of small local units and is 
centralized through the inspection and supervision of the State 
Division of Child Guardianship. Upon the overseers of the poor 
devolves the responsibility of providing suitable homes6 for neg- 
lected pauper children whose parents have settlements in the 
locality and of turning over to the State Division of Child Guard- 
ianship all such children who have no settlement within the State.7 
These local authorities, moreover, are the chief agents in the 
administration of the mothers’ aid law and provide two-thirds of 
the relief given mothers with settlements within the State. 
The Division of Child Guardianship of the Department of 
Public Welfare has assumed the functions formerly exercised 
by the State Board of Charity through its Department of Minor 
1 Tenth Annual Report of the Massachusetts Commission on Probation 
for year ending September 30, 1918 (p. 28). 
* Spalding, Warren P. “Possibilities of the Probation System,” pp. 1-7. 
8 Supra, p. 15, note 1. 
1 Ibid., p. 8. 
0 General Statutes, Massachusetts, 1906, Chap. 413, Sec. 8. 
•Revised Laws, Massachusetts, 1902, Chap. 81, Sec. 7, as amended by 
General Statutes, Massachusetts, 1913, Chap. 112, Sec. 1, provides that no 
pauper child shall be cared for in an almshouse unless he is defective or un- 
less he is under three years of age and his mother is an inmate and a suitable 
person to aid in caring for him. 
’Revised Laws, Massachusetts, 1902, Chap. 83, Sec. 20. 119 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
Wards. Through its agents it places in homes and assumes the 
guardianship of all neglected children of the ages from three to 
twenty-one and of all pauper children who have no settlement 
within the State. It licenses and inspects all boarding homes 
for children and takes note of all illegitimate children placed out 
to board by other agencies. It receives as its ward the illegiti- 
mate child less than two years of age whose custody the mother 
wishes to relinquish and the legitimate child under three years 
of age for whose support his parents are unable to provide. This 
Department supervises the aid to mothers with dependent chil- 
dren and visits all children who have been placed out by public 
agencies. 
Possibility of Co-operation and Extension 
The existence of the probation system and of the State Divi- 
sion of Child Guardianship forms the nucleus for the further 
development of preventive work among children. It is true that 
the juvenile court and the mothers’ aid law and the provisions 
for placing out of children in family homes are preventive in 
their nature, but it is equally true that the greater part of the 
remaining child welfare laws are primarily punitive and only 
secondarily preventive in their results. It is essential that Massa- 
chusetts should develop further the principle of public guardian- 
ship of the illegitimate child and of the offspring of arrested and 
divorced parents and it is equally essential that it should have, 
as it does have in the Division of Child Guardianship, a central 
agency with state-wide powers and responsibilities over all chil- 
dren in need of special care. Such a board in addition to its 
powers of guardianship over the wards of the State should serve 
as a clearing house for all cases in need of special protection, and 
should provide a bureau to which all cases should be reported 
and through which all other agencies could obtain information 
for their work. An indispensable function of this board should 
be to conduct research which would form the basis for future 
legislation extending the protective powers of the State to new 
groups of children found to stand in need of the exercise of 
this public function. Such a board should in addition co-operate 
with the courts and with the local units of administrative govern- 
ment so that the children of all unfortunate classes will have 
adequate and continuous supervision. INDEX 
Abandoning Children, penalty for, 
108. 
Adoption, requests for, legal pro- 
cedure, 109-110. 
Age Distribution of Children, 
widowers’ families, Chart II, 
19, Table 3-A, 20; reported in 
1,600 M. S. P. C. C. records, 
Chart IV, 88, Table 4, 89; of 
mothers at death, Table 4, 22; 
by five principal causes of 
death, Chart III, 21. 
Agencies, social, co-operating with 
M. S. P. C. C. in care of 
neglected children, 73, 75; 
Table 12, 99; assisting with 
broken families, 81-82. 
Assistance, applications for, when 
made for widowers’ children, 
Table 5, 24; persons request- 
ing, Table 6, 25; police reports 
of need, 70; persons request- 
ing in M. S. P. C. C. cases, 
Table 8, 94. 
Bastardy Legislation in America, 
115. 
Birthplaces, of widowers, 26; of 
parents reported in M. S. P. 
C. C. cases, 54, 66; Table 1, 
84. 
Blackmail, protection from, in 
laws dealing with unmarried 
mothers, 115-116. 
Boarding, children and father, 47; 
homes, licensing and inspect- 
ing of, 119. 
Cancer, ages of mothers who died 
of, 18; Tables 2, 17; Table 3, 
18; a cause of dependency, 23. 
Carstens, C. C., introduction by, 
5-7. 
Case Records, agencies supplying 
those of widowers’ families, 
15, Table 1, 16; supplied by 
the M. S. P. C. C., 53, 65, 77. 
Childbirth, ages of mothers who 
died in, 18. 
Child Guardianship, Division of, 
See Guardianship, Public 
Welfare. 
Child Placing, need of expert as- 
sistance in, 6; standards 
maintained, 42-43. 
Children, agencies for their care 
enlisted by the M. S. P. C. C., 
Table 12, 99; delinquent, care 
of in Massachusetts, 112-113; 
final disposition of those cared 
for by the M. S. P. C. C., 
Table 15, 102; illegitimate, 
care of, 114 ff.; legal obliga- 
tion of parents to support, 
110-111; Massachusetts stat- 
utes protecting, 107 ff.; neg- 
lected, how cared for by M. S. 
P. C. C., Table 14, 101; degree 
of success in caring for, Table 
16, 103; number of, in widow- 
ers’ families, Table 3, 18, 54; 
in families with criminal 
parents, 67; in 1,600 M. S. P. 
C. C. families, Table 5, 90; de- 
prived of their mothers by 
certain diseases, 18; over 18 
years old in families of widow- 
ers, 34; punishment for aban- 
doning, 108; penalties for de- 
serting wife and minor, 111; 
State laws for their protec- 
tion, Chart I, frontispiece; 
under 18 in families of widow- 
ers, Table 10, 33; wayward, 
supervised by probation offi- 
cers, 118. 
Children’s, agencies, discussion of 
findings by representatives of 
49; aid societies may serve 
others than paupers, 6; Bu- 
reau report on care of widows’ 
children, 15. 
Community Interest in Child 
Care, 6. 122 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
Court, actions, criminal parents, 
73; disciplining parents of 
broken families, 81; for pro- 
tection of children, Table 13, 
100; records of arrested 
parents, 69; see Juvenile 
Court, 112. 
Criminal, action against parent 
or guardian, 108; prosecutions 
for desertion, non-support, 
etc., 114. 
Custody of Children, extent to 
which retained by fathers, 
Table 11, 44. 
Daughters, widowers’, number of 
older capable of giving assist- 
ance, 34, 39-40; prepared to 
care for fathers’ households, 
49. 
Deaths of Mothers, causes, 16, 
Table 2, 17; family conditions 
at time of, 22; widowers’ 
families made dependent by, 
30. 
Degeneracy, evidences of in 1,600 
M. S. P. C. C. families, Table 
6-A, 91; found in criminal 
families, 67-68; in families 
broken by separation and 
divorce, 78. 
Delinquency of Widowers’ Chil- 
dren, 55; reported in Chicago 
Juvenile Court Records, 55. 
Desertion of Wife or Minor 
Children, penalties for, 111. 
Discipline of Families Broken 
by Separation and Divorce, 
81; of parents of neglected 
children, Table 13, 100. 
Domestic Relations, session of 
Municipal Court of Boston, 
113-114. 
Drunkenness, common charac- 
teristic of unsatisfactory and 
bad fathers, 28; contact of 
neglected children with, 57; 
of arrested parents, 68; for- 
feits parental authority, 109. 
Divorce, children in families 
broken by, 77 ff.; caused by 
immorality of mothers, 78; 
disposal of children after, 110. 
Earnings of Fathers, amounts, 
30, Table 8, 31,; 54, 66. 
Family, conditions when the 
mothers died, 22; attempts of 
fathers to keep together the 
children of, 44, 45; ties, why 
weakened, 45. 
Father, classification, as to char- 
acter, descriptions, 26-29; 
keeping children in touch 
with, 44, 49; number retain- 
ing personal custody of chil- 
dren, 43-44; obligation to sup- 
port illegitimate child, 115-116. 
Feeblemindedness in Widowers’ 
Families, 61-62; in broken 
families, 78; in 1,600 M. S. P. 
C. C. families, Table 6-B, 92. 
Foster Homes, location of de- 
sirable, 45; replacements in, 
49; standards desired, 43; 
parents in, little evidence of 
affection for, 49; numbers 
placed in by M. S. P. C. C., 
Table 12, 99. 
Friction in Widowers’ Families, 
60-61. 
Guardianship, Division of Child, 
State Board of Public Wel- 
fare, care of neglected chil- 
dren, 75; of delinquent chil- 
dren, 112-113; supervisory 
duties, 118; licenses and in- 
spects boarding homes for 
children, 119. 
Home, private best for children, 
removal of child from, 109; 
Massachusetts statute of 1880, 
109; boarding, see Foster 
Home. 
Housekeepers Hired, experiences 
of widowers with, 35-37; 55- 
56. 
Illegitimate Children, legal 
status of, protection given by 
laws of Massachusetts, 114- 
116. CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
123 
Immorality, sexual, in widowers’ 
households, 29, 30, 61-62; in 
families of criminal parents, 
68-69, 71-72; separated and 
divorced parents, 80; 1,600 
M. S. P. C. C. cases, Table 6-B, 
92. 
Income, adequate for family with 
children, 110. 
Infection, need of training 
mothers to avoid, 16. 
Influenza, a cause of mothers’ 
deaths, 16, Table 2, 17. 
Institutional Care, of widowers’ 
children, 42; policy in giving, 
74, 81; in 1,600 M. S. P. C. C. 
cases, Table 14, 101; Table 15, 
102. 
Jurisdiction, conflicts of, in deal- 
ing with children’s cases, 114. 
Juvenile Court, established in 
Massachusetts, 112-113. 
Kelso, Robert W., introduction by, 
8. 
Laws, in U. S. giving protection 
to children, Chart I, frontis- 
piece; of Massachusetts, 107 
ff.; punitive character of 
greater part of child welfare, 
119. 
Lodgers, in widowers’ families, 56; 
in criminal families, 71-72; in 
broken groups, 80. 
Massachusetts, public interven- 
tion in for the protection of 
children in need of special 
care, 107 ff. 
Medical Social Workers Discover 
Needs of Neglected Children, 
24. 
Minnesota Statutes Protecting 
Illegitimate Children, 116. 
Mothers, aid granted by statutes 
to, U. S., 5, 15, Massachusetts, 
111; need instruction about 
prevention of infection, 49; 
more degenerate than fathers, 
78; periods when their care is 
needed, 54; relation to illegiti- 
mate children, 114-115; work- 
ing outside of the home, 80, 
footnote. 
Massachusetts Society for the 
Prevention of Cruelty to 
Children (M. S. P. C. C.), 
activities in caring for widow- 
ers’ families, 62-63; court ac- 
tions instituted by, Table 13, 
100; methods of caring for 
neglected children, Table 14, 
101; success in the treatment 
of neglected children, Table 
16, 103; see Tables and 
Chart in Chapter IV, 83 ff. 
Neglect of Children, agencies re- 
porting, 57, 81, Table 6, 25, 
Table 8, 94; case kept open, 
109; conditions lying back of 
in 1,600 M. S. P. C. C. families, 
Table 7, 93; evidence of, 75, 
108-109; examples of by crimi- 
nal parents, 70-71; forms 
checked as predominant in 
1,600 M. S. P. C. C. cases, 
Table 10, 96; forms of, Chart 
V, 97, Table 9, 95, Table 11, 
98; in families broken by 
separation and divorce, 80-81; 
legal definition of, 108; Mass, 
statutes dealing with, 107; 
means by which reported to 
M. S. P. C. C., Table 8, 94; by 
whom reported for children 
of arrested parents, 70; of 
moral standards, 71; physical, 
in families of criminal 
parents, 72-73; most common 
form, 57. 
Occupations, of fathers, Table 9, 
32, 54, 66-67, Table 3, 86-87; 
monotonous character, 45; of 
mothers, 67, 79-80. 
Overseers of the Poor, procedure 
in administering mothers’ aid 
law, 111; responsible for care 
of neglected pauper children, 
118. 
Parents, characteristics of, wid- 
ower, 26-30, 45; criminal, 66- 
69; separated or divorced, 77- 124 
CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
80; court actions against, 
Table 13, 100; children left 
with, Table 11, 44, Table 15, 
102; neglect of children, or 
abandonment by, Mass. Stat- 
utes, 107; consent required for 
adoption, 109; separation of 
child from, 108-109; divorced, 
control of children, 110; obli- 
gation to support children, 
110-111; summons of, to trial 
of delinquent child, 112-113. 
Physical, cruelty of criminal 
parents, 71; of separated or 
divorced parents, 80; exam- 
inations, given by child plac- 
ing agencies, 43. 
Pneumonia, mothers who died of, 
their ages, 17-18. 
Predominant Factors, causing in- 
tervention by M. S. P. C. C., 
Table 10, 96. 
Preventive, program requires 
prompt discovery of the needs 
of children, 23; activities of 
probation officers, 118; may 
receive further development 
through probation system and 
State Board of Child Guardian- 
ship, 119. 
Prisoners’ Families, 6, 65 ff. 
Probation, officer, collects money 
from deserting husbands, 111; 
activities in care and super- 
vision of children, 117-118. 
Psychopathic, examinations, when 
given by child placing agen- 
cies, 43; mothers, in criminal 
families, 67-69; in families 
broken by separation and 
divorce, 78-79. 
Re-marriage, a solution of wid- 
owers’ problems, 40-41. 
Relatives, applications for assist- 
ance by, 24, Table 8, 94; assist- 
ance given widowers, 39-41; 
information needed about chil- 
dren cared for by, 50; living 
in widowers’ households, 56; 
quarrels over custody of chil- 
dren, 57; care of children of 
criminals, 74; children left in 
custody of, Table 15, 102. 
Religion, of parents of neglected 
children, Table 2, 85, 77-78. 
Replacements, frequency and 
effects of in widower cases, 
39. 
School Officials, reports of neg- 
lected children, 24, Table 6, 
25, 57, Table 8, 94. 
Separation, desertion or divorce, 
families broken by, 77 ff.; 
legal, of parent and child, 109. 
Settlement, mothers, a factor in 
administering mothers’ aid 
laws, 112; of illegitimate chil- 
dren, 114-115. 
Simmons College, School of Social 
Work, contributions of its 
students to this study, 9. 
Social Agencies, co-operating by 
supplying case records used 
in this study, Table 1, 16; 
help given families before the 
deaths of mothers, 22-23; 
means of discovering the 
needs of neglected children, 
23, Table 8, 94. 
Standards, enforced by child- 
placing agencies, 43. 
State Programs of Child Care, 6. 
Statutes, of states giving protec- 
to children, Chart I, frontis- 
piece; of Massachusetts, 107 
ff. 
Supervision, unwillingness of 
fathers to permit, 50; lack of, 
57-58, 73; public, for neglected 
children, 109. 
Support, punishment of father 
for failure to support illegiti- 
mate child, 116. 
Treatment, vacillation in plans of, 
for widowers’ families, 38-39; 
success of in families with 
criminal parents, 75-76, Tables 
12-16, 101-103. CHILDREN IN NEED OF SPECIAL CARE 
Tuberculosis, a cause of mothers’ 
deaths, 16; of dependency of 
families, 23. 
Unmarried Mother, legal status 
of, 115; see Illegitimate, 
Mothers. 
Visits, of fathers to foster homes, 
44-46; friendly visits to wid- 
owers’ families, 23, 49. 
Wages, of widowers, Table 8, 31, 
30-31. 
Widowers, their children 15 ff.; 
a more normal group, 56; see 
also Neglect, Children, Tables 
1-16, 84-102. CO-OPERATIVE SOCIAL RESEARCH SERIES 
Social agencies represented in the Boston Council supply 
case records for these studies, members in the statistics classes of 
the Simmon College School of Social Work, and graduate stu- 
dents holding fellowships in the Research Department of the 
Women’s Educational and Industrial Union, assist in the analysis, 
tabulation and literary presentation of results of the investigations. 
The research activities are carried on under the direction of Dr. 
Lucile Eaves, who is editor and author, or part author, of the 
published reports. 
Report No. 1—Gainful Employment for Handicapped Women, by Lucile 
Eaves. A study based on one thousand case records from an em- 
ployment bureau for handicapped women. 
Paper, 25 cents. 
Report No. 2—Children in Need of Special Care, by Lucile Eaves and 
Associates. Studies based on two thousand case records of social 
agencies. Families of a thousand widowers, of five hundred 
parents who had been arrested, and of six hundred who had been 
separated by divorce or desertion, are studied. Massachusetts 
statutes and decisions making possible public intervention for the 
protection of children are summarized. 
Cloth, $1-25. 
Report No. 3—A Legacy to Wage Earning Women, by Lucile Eaves and 
Associates. Relief given during twenty years to the working 
women of a New England factory town. Plans for meeting more 
fully their needs for protection during sickness and old age in- 
capacity. Ready for distribution in about six months. 
Report No. 4—The Care of the Aged in Massachusetts. In prepara- 
tion. 
Published and distributed by the Women’s Educational and 
Industrial Union, 264 Boylston Street, Boston 17, Massachusetts.