The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1911-05-12

such societies as ours under the acts
granting charters for charity organ
izations, remains TO be seen. 1t does
not seem reasonable to me that those
powers granted years ago-and on
which large vested rights have been
built UP, can be suddenly destroyed by
the provisions OF new law. The new
law Is In the main very satisfactory,
but II 1t comes to giving UP the Local
ton Of its wards, then do not care
to continue in this work; for can con-
ceive Of no greater injustice to
FOSTER parents than to have an UNI
desirable parent-a drunken father or
an illegitimate mother-disturbin
foster-children in their new homes,
where time and means have been
spent to bring them up properly. 1
am always willing to give court the
location of our wards, but not to make
1t known to a board of six visitors in
each county.
More Visiting Needed.
wish I could leave the office work
more frequently and do more of this
visitation of wards than is now pos
sible for me; for 1t cannot be done
rapidly, our wards being scattered
widely over all parts OF the state, and
many have removed from the state. In
the case OF the latter, we shall have
to depend largely upon getting in
touch with responsible parties who can
secure the information we need,
though the roads in this state will
gladly give trip passes to points on
their lines in other states for this
purpose.
If l am to do this work, an office
assistant would have to be in charge
in my absence, as there is altogether
too much work for one to do properly
as it now is, and to be absent would
only greatly delay important CORES
pondence.
There is considerable work attached
to the preparation OF each set Of adop-
ton papers and attorneys charge a
good fee for making them out. 1t is
only proper they should do all of this
work except the making out Of what
Is known as the illegal consent" blank
and the furnishing of the original as
signment in each case. This is strict
ly our own work. and after the COM
pletion of the present adoptions in
progress, foster-parents will be ex-
pected to take the matter of adoption
to their own attorneys.
Some Of the Problems.
At the White House conference two
years ago, President Roosevelt sug-
gested the following questions for dis
cussion:
Should children of worthy parents,
but suffering from temporary misfor-
tune, and the children Of widows of
worthy character an(1 reasonable eff
ficiency, be kept with their. parents,
aid being given to the parents to en-
able them to maintain suitable homes
for the rearing Of the children? Should
the breaking Of the home be permitted
for reasons of poverty, or only for
reasons of inefficiency or immortality"
The president most heartily approx
ed of the first proposition, and was
unqualifledly against the latter. At
the close of the conference the body
adopted as a fundamental principle of
child saving work that children Of
worthy parents or deserving moth
ers should, as a rule, be kept with
their parents at home" Also that
society should endeavor to eradicate
causes of dependency like disease, and
to substitute compensation and insur-
ance for relief"
The insurance as a relief for de-
tendency is an utopian idea, and may
come in the future, but the aiding of
the worthy in keeping their families
intact through poverty and misfor-
tune has long been carried on by
various societies. Such work has been
done as a regular feature of several
Of our own system Of societies, and by
ours, but without the keeping of
separate records. Since the White
House conference separate statistics
Of aid work have been kept by our
society, and we are now able to show
you feature that 1 presume most OF
you have not realized is being done
by us. I think when you have digest
ed the statistics you will realize that
it is a valuable feature, and can be
carried on without any serious loss of
time or effort. Since the organization
of the Associated Charities in the city.
they have done a great deal Of this
kind of work, but the work we have
done is either different from theirs, or
they have asked us to do it in CO.
operation with them. The statistics
look larger when combined, but to
know just what has been done in each
line of work the National Children's
Home society has recommended for
several years past that separate and
accurate statistics of aid work be kept
and tabulated.
Another recommendation of Presi-
dent Roosevelt was that states having
laws which practically prohibited the
exchange Of dependent children should
secure from their legislatures either
! their abrogation or reduction of the
guarantee bond to point that would
not make it prohibitive to bring in
children from other states. In some
states there was much opposition to
doing this, but feeling that our own
law on this subject was perhaps rather
drastic, and that smaller bond would
indemnify the state for any children
who might become dependent upon
it, drafted measure reducing the
bond to $500 from $1,000, and making
| 1t cover all cases Of children sent into
any one county by any one organiza-
| ton in other states; and providing
for the free interchange OF dependent
wards between organizations in differ
ent states. The measure was passed
by large majority, and Is now in
force.
! The recent effort to make society
of very recent organization in North
Dakota state-supported organization
for humane work for, children, as well
as dumb animals, is too well known to
this board to need an extended para