New Britain herald., 1916-05-11

were ill simply died. Now we lind great need of a properly equipped Milk Station and of nurses in connec-
 lon with it to give directions to 1g- norant mothers, and thus the death rate of babies is being lowered.
 Obviously in every welfare chan nel We have been forced by circum- stances to organize for masses lr- stead of keeping to individuals. Old time charity was largely individual, but as towns and villages grew into cities individual charity was not suf- hcient. People who wanted to give did not always know just where their gift was most needed, and people who needed help did not know always just where to get it. Out of this came the necessary cry for organization and as a result came system and office methods and records and statistics all perfectly necessary in we'll or ganized work. Any organiza tion giv- ing aid of any sort these days whether it be legal aid, dental aid, medical aid, care of children ur what not-must keep intelligible office rec ords, the public demands it.
 Cooperative Relief.
 The giving of relief was organized also. Charity organization societies came into an existence with 8 view, not only to give aid themselves in the wisest possible way, but also to serve all the other organizations by opening a sort of charitable clearing house. This involved the keeping of statistics and records like thOs4 of all the other welfare agencies. Now we believe that their usefulness can be exaggerated. Old fashioned char ity was mostly an affair of the heart New fashioned charity in it's recep- tion sometimes seems to us to be too much an affair of the head-a matter of systematizing and standardlzlng and recording without much regard for the unfortunate individuals them selves.
 We feel that we can speak freely because neither of these kinds of char ity for our ideal. Heart charity is not always wise charity Head charity usually has not much heart in It. Our ideal for charity organization So- ciety work in New Britain is a head on collision between the two. Natu- rally when the pendulum swings from one extreme it goes little too Tar III the opposite direction. But :inal!y It comes to rest at a point midway De- tween the two. And that is exactly what we think must happen with old fashioned heart charity and new fash toned head charity.
 There has been ample opportunity during the past month for us to put our combination ideal into practice. There have been 239 applicants for our services during April; 40 from applicants themselves, twelve from public officials, ten from private so- cieties, five from schools, one from church, two from cities, and sixty-nine from interested people. There have been 2S0 calls at our office, 140 from and 40 from applicants; 101 visits were made by the agents and there were 300 telephone inter views. We were aided by eleven and one half hours of volunteer office work.
 Permanent work was secured for two and temporary work for nine. Transp ortatiOn was provided for orc and clothing given to twenty-sevcn. It is gratifying to note that ofter an average of thirty mine new cases of need during each of the past two the numbers dropped this month to tWenty-One.
 As for emergency relief during was expended from the treasurer's fund and $2217 from the agents fund; $24.41 was the amount of the special shoe fund for school children. Aid amounting to $136.39 was organized by HIS from outside sources so that the ~payment did not come out of our funds, mak- ing a total of S247.6O for emergency relief through Charity Organization channels during the month.
 Respectfully submitted
 ELSIE c. OSBORN
 Agent.