The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-05-02

time, in travelling through the southern
 states. he has been active in promot-
 Ing and perfecting Travellers Aid so-. cieties
 Their greatest need, he found, was for
 cooperation between societies in diff
 ferent cities, where independent societies
 had been organized. This cooperation. brought about by having a national or sanizauon, would result in two things:
 In the societies being able to have more and very necessary influence and in bet
 Ter service through communication.
 | An example of the necessity for com
 munioation between cities was demon- stiated in the case of a neatly dressed, well reared Italian girl who was placed | ID the care of the New York society from the second class cabin. She pathet- ically said that all the family she had In the world was her hand baggage. and that she had come to America to join girl who had been her most in
 innate friend in an orphanage in Italy. ihls friend was a household servant Tn large city some distance from New York and had promised to get similar work for the girl who had come to be with her, The traveller gave the name and address of this friend to the Tray elers' Aid representative in New York, who telegraphed for her to meet the im- migrant, arranged for her journey from New York to the other city, and gave her the usual postal card addressed to the New York society in order that she might notify them of her safe arrival at her destination. Some days later the card was returned by the investigator of | the Immigrant Protective league with the unhappy information that the friend had proven utterly unreliable and that he had. by accident. found the girl and had rescued her from the friend who had ,IrA .<Fl
 been systematic articulation between the two societies she would have been very
 much more likely to have been protected
 all the way and sent to a safe place.
 Every city meets the same conditions
 Here in Birmingham 1t is often neces-
 sary to send a message by the conductor
 to the representative in another city to
 look after girl who may be at a loss l to know what to do in the next place
 where she must change cars or wait Il A girl sat in the terminal here chat
 ting with a man whom she had just met
 on the train The representative on duty
 saw that she was making a mistake and
 spoke to her, but how could the repre-
 sentative in the city to which she was
 going know that on certain train this
 girl would arrive and would need some- one to see that in her inexperience she
 was not annoyed or placed in any dan- ger? Then there are the girls who leave i l, work in another. The Travellers Aid representative in the city to which they
 go should be advised to look for them and
 see that they are properly assisted or directed as soon as they reach the place
 where they are strangers, lonely and in search of work.
 Repeated cases of these different kinds show that the work of the aid societies would be far more effective were it a chain of service or extended protection covering every city. Uniform outlines for
 letters and codes for telegrams are
 especially needed as well as a uniform
 system for the exchange of information , regarding institutional homes hotels, boarding houses employment bureaus and l other things that concern persons going from one place to another.
 [ The ideal toward which the national
 society is working is a cooperation } reaching every city. town and village. There are many forces working toward this end. and gradually they are coming
 more closely iE touch with each other In 1910 worlds conference of Travellers Aid and station workers was held in i. Berne, Switzerland. The Young Women's s Christian association is in sympathy with ] the movement to make it a national or
 gan,zation, and the New York society l has been especially active in its endeavor to promote in this way the effectiveness of this work. Mir Orin c. Baker, gen eral secretary of the New York society has recently been sent on extended tours
 through the United States and Canada to study the real need for Travellers Aid ! its protective value and the problem of
 CO., operation. In many cities he has as-
 sisted in enlarging. reorganizing and
 strengthening their work.
 } As a Civic Duty
 More effective Travellers Aid service
 means fewer lost girls and distressed
 homes It means. too better cities with cleaner records. 1t is no credit to a city for travellers passing through it to be harmed It Is blot on the city's name
 not to protect and safeguard those who
 are in it for short time or who go there for the first time, to make it their home.
 In all cities Business Mems leagues. Chambers of Commerce and organiza-
 tions of that kind invite people to their
 city as visitors as delegates, as resi-
 dents. They offer inducements of diff
 ferent kinds They very rightly strive
 to make their city attractive. It is all
 important that they make it safe. They
 must protect the girls and young wom-
 en in it. If they do not do it because 1t is the right thing to do, then they
 should do 1t as matter of self-protec-
 tion.
 In many places commercial clubs have had Travellers Aid presented to them;
 ana the cooperation or those organlza-
 tions. of Chambers of Commerce, of the
 Oranges, the Gideons, Y. w C. As, Y.
 M. c. As, Kings Daughters, Woman s
 Christian Temperance union, fraternal
 societies. Catholic Womens leagues and
 Councils of Jewish Women has been pledged. Many of these, in different cities : help with the expenses of the societies
 as Travellers Aid is maintained by vol untary contributions bequests and by
 organizations In Pittsburg, Chicago and
 in some other places the Catholic Wom-
 en's leagues have taken active part while in Connecticut. Pennsylvania and New York tie Kings Daughters are one of the strongest supports. In other
 places the work ia, most logically, a part of the Y. w. c. A. This is the case in Birmingham.
 Travellers Aid societies are now defi-
 nitely organized in more than 100 cities,
 which have regularly employed repre- l sentatives at their terminals The CO., operation of 800 more cities is almost 1 assured In some cases it is a question
 of educating the towns into understand ing that if they do not do this work because they are their sisters keeper
 they must do 1t in self-defense.
 Travellers Aid in the South
 It is the work of presenting Travellers
 Aid in the south and of securing CO., operation among the southern cities and with distant states to which Mir. Steele
 is giving his attention, in anticipation
 of national organization. He presents the t matter very forcibly with a brief ilus- e tration. 'if your daughter left home on