Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-02-02
BY ANNA B. BURNS

While hundreds of Philadelphia fam
lilies of imprisoned, deserting and nom
supporting husbands and fathers are sut-
fcrng actual privation by reason of Coun-
ellis failure to make an appropriation
whereby the law of 1918 may be enforced.
Allegheny County has used the law to
good effect in bringing these delinquent
husbands and fathers to n sense OF their
responsibilities and in relieving the pow
erty of their wives and children during
their Imprisonment.
During the two years and half In
which Philadelphia Councils have been
making up their minds whether this city
can afford to enforce the law and If so,
which department should be intrusted
with the funds for carrying out the pro-
visions thereof, Allegheny County has eX-
pended thousands of dollars in admins
terng the law.
On September 2. 1915, r. NJ. Little,
general secretary of the Society for Or
ganizing Charity, wrote 10 Judge v liam
a. Way, of the County Court - Alle-
gheny County, asking the methods used
by that court to enforce the act. In this
letter Mr.. Little said: THE particular
point which l wish to learn is the method
you worked cut for these payments-what
officer pays the money, from what fund'
who draws the money ana who pays 1t to
the beneficiary? In other words. your
technical procedure In making eHectNe
this part of the act
'I would also appreciate your Judgment
as to the effect of the act upon desertion
or nonsupport, the number of cases TO
which II has been applied and the amount
of money that has been paid TO the
families. The act Is still In allegiance IN
Philadelphia; consequently, we are haV-
ing n heavy burden to carry and nothing
effective Is being done to deter husbands
and fathers from deserting or falling 10
support their families
ALLEGHENY COUNTY METHOD.
To this letter Judge Way replied as
io''0"'' sept. 3, 1916
"The Rev. r. NJ. Little, Philadelphia, Pa
"N1y dear Mr.. Little-ReplyinE to your
letter of September regarding the So
called 'workhouse act In desertion ana
nonsupport cases, l beg to say that We
have no trouble at all in putting this in
practical operation. The county operates
the workhouse and has provided the man.
ager with sufficient funds to make the
payments required by the act or Assem-
bly,. All our orders of court require the
money so paid to be turned over to our
probation officer, who in turn distributes
the funds to the families of the impris-
oned men, / have no compiled statistics
up to date, but send you copy or our
report for the year 1914, from which you
will see the amount or moneys colleCteu
through this source during that period.
''As a working proposition the effect Of
this act has been very beneficial. We
used to have many men who would obstl-
nately stay in jail, where they knew their
families would get nothing from them,
rather than turn in and earn money LOT
the famly's support. The realization that
they can be made to work and the pro-
ceeds of their labor turned over to the
support of their families, whether they
like 1t or not, put the matter In a very
different light to great many people.
The workhouse Is not a popular place,
and the knowledge tnat failure to obey
the order of the court will certainly re-
suit in a term there has unquestionably
stimulated n great many men to do what
is right Further than that, we have
found the actual effect of short incar-
ceration in the workhouse under this sys-
tenn very helpful in many cases. We
make a practice of keeping track of the
men we place there, and as soon as they
seem to look at things in a different light
we let them out and, If necessary. find
employment for them We have depart
ment especially detailed for this purpose,
and we make every effort to get man
work and put him on his feet and look
after him after he leaves the workhouse.
we find this greatly appreciated by a
large number of people. and good many
families have been re-established by these.
methods.