New Britain herald., 1917-10-11

l o'@AoI yedI-Olu QeVelOpmenC Tn nome
 service, aiming to provide work of various kinds to be done by women l Who must remain at home with their nttle children. A good mother is one
 of the finest assets the city of New 1 Britain can have. No widows fam 1 lily in this city, is ever broken up, to our knowledge, on account of pov- erty unless neglect or immortality go l with it. It is often hard for a proud woman to accept charity and stay at home with her little ones. and vet it 1 is hard on the children if she leaves them to do work outside. This com- m1ttee hopes to create a market for such nome work to be done at req sonable prices. On account of the war; another year will probably see | a large increase in the number of such families, whose husbands and fa- thers will be fighting for their coun- try, ana the need of a modest eco- nomfcally conducted Day Nursery will
 then be Increasingly apparent, since 1t would be difficult to create enough nome work for all or coax them into taking it if provided.
 As for material relief, during the past year when times were so pros- porous, and any man who was half a
 man could get a job, our chief concern has been for the dozens of families
 not directly affected by industrial con- dlt1ons, because there was no mem- per of the family who could respond
 to the call for labor There were men
 m these families who were broken in health. There were women strug- sAng along with little children while the wage earner was i'll in hospital or sanitarium. There were some With husbands in jail. Still oth-
 CTS were deserted wives or wid- o"s and some had such brutal husbands that they could be pardoned for wishing they were "iooWs. There were men and wom-
 en suffering from sickness and old age. With all of these it was impos-
 slole to get the advanced wages with
 which to meet the high prices. These.
 or course, needed something more
 material, along with service and sym
 pathy.
 without giving space to the special
 work of thanksgiving and Christmas,
 the summer outings, the garden work,
 the canning and drying of vegetables
 and so on, When it comes to the daily
 service of the workers in the Charity
 Organization office, the diversity of
 the work IS so great that the sim
 plest explanation is to give one days
 history:
 Early in the morning came a call
 in regard to a family difference that
 was to be settled in police court that
 day. Then came several telephone
 messages in regard to supplying maids and laundresses. Next the mail had to be opened, including a letter from a woman we had once helped, plea for statistics from a national organi- zation, a postal from a girl we had sent back to her old home few days previously, a check from friend of little children, several bills for fuel and groceries, two inquiries from so- cieties in far distant cities who wished us to get information in this city regarding families they were helping, and an anonymous letter requesting us to give no further aid to Mrs. So-and-So as she was mo good" As a matter of fact our call on Mrs. So- and-So did not signify that we were aiding her, but there way of explaining this to anonymous cor l respondent. Answers were made to 1 these letters and also inquiries sent 1 out to other Charity Organization so- 1 cieties and letters in behalf of people 1 we were befriending.
 Gradually callers began to appear: l a woman for advice about rent she | owed; a young girl whose injured 1 hand prevented her from working; a father who had stayed out of the fac tory to consult us about his mother ess children; a woman whose hus- oand had deserted her; several wom- en who wanted to do days work; ] worried mother whose little girl lad a broken leg; an old man in re- gard to pension he hoped to get; ! woman whose husband had become 7ery ill; a mother whose boy had run l. away; a neighbor to tell us about he new baby arrived at one of the houses we visit; boy sent by the tru- mt officer to get some shoes quickly md hustle off to school; and woman who came for advice in family troubles.
 Also an insurance agent came in