CHAPTER FOREWORD Administration of the Maternity and Infancy Act . Child Labor and Industrial Conditions Affecting Child Welfare 21 Dependency, Mothers' Pensions, Delinquency, Juvenile Courts, UNIV. OF THE CHILDREN'S BUREAU IT'S HISTORY, ACTIVITIES AND ORGANIZATION CHAPTER I HISTORY The Children's Bureau, now a branch of the Department of Labor, was created to promote the general welfare of children in the United States and the several territories. It was established by an act of Congress approved April 9, 1912 (37 Stat. L., 79), and its duties declared to be to investigate and report . . . upon all matters pertaining to the welfare of children and child life among all classes of our people, and . . . especially especially [to] investigate the questions of infant mortality, the birth rate, orphanage, juvenile courts, desertion, dangerous occupations, accidents and diseases of children, employment, [and] legislation affecting children in the several states and territories. Events Leading to Its Establishment. The original suggestion for a Federal Children's Bureau is attributed to Miss Lillian D. Wald, head of the House on Henry Street in New York City. Mrs. Florence Kelley of the National Consumers' League, to whom Miss Wald communicated her idea, formulated the plan, which was supported by officials of the National Child Labor Com mittee, and by other well-known sociologists. The first bill for a Children's Bureau was introduced in the United States Senate on January 10, 1906, by Senator Murray Crane and in the House on May 9th of the same year by Representative Augustus P. Gardner. Both of these gentlemen represented the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which seventeen years later was to contest in the Supreme Court the act sponsored by the Bureau, providing for federal aid to the states for the public protection of maternity and infancy. Six years elapsed after the introduction of the bills by Senator Crane and Representative Gardner before Congress finally passed a measure creating the Children's Bureau. In 1911, during the Sixty-First Congress, a bill to this end passed the Senate, but was not acted upon in the House. President Roosevelt, on February 15, 1909, recommended in a Message to Congress that the bill be adopted. In April, 1911, the bill was once more introduced in both Houses. After much discussion by the Senate, it was passed with amendments on January 31, 1912, and by the House on April 2, with further amendments. Final action was taken by Congress on April 5, 1912, and the bill was signed by the President on April 9 (37 Stat. L., 79). The first chief of the Bureau was appointed June 4, 1912, and the legislative bill carrying the first appropriation for the new bureau was approved August 23, 1912. At that time the Children's Bureau became the twelfth bureau of the Department of. Commerce and Labor, where it remained until 1913, when it was transferred to the newly created Department of Labor (Act of March 4, 1913; 37 Stat. L., 736). 1 The First Work-Infant Mortality Studies. The Bureau began operations on August 23, 1912, when its first appropriation of $25,640 became available. The staff authorized for the first year comprised only fifteen persons, though this number was not reached until March, 1913. The initial work undertaken was experimental, and as infant mortality seemed to present the most strategic point at which the Bureau could begin investigations with its limited forces, a study of the family, social, industrial, and economic factors concerned in infant mortality was conducted in the City of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. At this time the Bureau had no medical staff, and so "The inquiry was necessarily restricted to a consideration of social, industrial and civic factors." Although the general plan of the series of reports on infant mortality which followed was unchanged, later studies, after a child hygiene division was established, discuss in some detail the incidence of medical causes of death. The infant mortality studies have never been the responsibility of any one division. Up to the present time studies have been conducted in Johnstown, Pa.; Montclair, N. J.; Manchester, N. H.; Brockton, Mass. ; New Bedford, Mass.; Saginaw, Mich.; Waterbury, Conn.; Akron, Ohio; Pittsburgh, Pa.; Baltimore, Md.; and Gary, Indiana. In Gary a study of the pre-school child, from 2 to 6 years of age, was made, and the infant mortality aspect was somewhat simplified. Finally, a statistical analysis of causal factors in infant mortality based on the combined figures of eight of these cities has recently been published. Other Early Activities. Other activities during the early years of the Bureau's existence included the prep |