The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-09-22

children getting the proper SchooilnS
Or have the wrong vocations been
chosen for them? Perhaps one OF the
older girls is dissa tisfied with her job.
Why? Does the family get the nee
esSary amount of recreation! some
times the only trouble with family
will be it's loneliness 1T is not mere
ly the work / have to do said
woman whose husband had died, lit
is not merely that I have to be re-
sponsible alone for the care OF the
children, but there is nobody who
comes home at night"
Here is the case of Mrs. Finnegan.
whose husband enlisted in the British
army, but there may be many Mrs
FinneganS in the American army be-
fore the war is over. Mrs. F'innegan
appeared at a social bureau one after
noon to apply for rent. Her husband,
she said, had sailed for England to en-
list.
The social worker asked Mrs. Finne-
gan to sit down, and soon they were
engaged in confidential conversation.
Mrs. Finnegan was explaining that her
husband had been a street car con-
ductor and that the company owed
him SIS; that they owed the grocer
$50, and that Mr.. Finnegan had been
intoxicated when he left for England.
Upon calling at the Finnegan home,
the social worker found things as she
expected. There were four children,
| none of whom looked strong, the
youngest being extremely pale and
delicate. Mrs. Finnegan, however,
was making cheerful plans to support
them and herself by obtaining work
| at a publishing house where she had
| been employed before she was mar
ried.
In this case the social worker dealt
with merely obvious problems. She
| did not have to search for clues. Her
J first duty was to see that the rent was
| paid, and that the family had food.
| She must go to the British consulate
| and apply for a pension for the family.
She must try to obtain the money
which the street car company owed
F'innegan's record. And his family ?
| Would they be friendly toward his
| wife, now that he was gone, or would
they accuse her of having driven him
to enlist and thus add to her unhappi-
| ness? She must also interview the
reighbors in the last place where the
| F'innegans had lived.
| What Home Service Means.
All these things the social worker
did. After many negotiations the
| street car company paid the fifteen
dollars, the British government paid
| the pension, and Mr.. Finnegan's peo-
| pie, who sincerely sympathized with
| his wife, agreed to do all they could
for her. The children were put un-
| der the care of a doctor, and arrange
ments were made for Mrs. Finnegan tc
stay at home and nurse her. youngest
| son instead of going to work in the
| publishing house. Moreover, in hel
! Investigations among former neigh.
| bors, the social worker found an ole
| friend of Mrs. Finnegan's, who had be.
| come estranged thru gossip. but who
Immediately went to see her when she
heard of her trouble.
This is what home service means
The social worker who joins the Rec
Cross Home Service department mus
work as earnestly and as Efficient,
as Mrs. Finnegan's helper did in caring
for the families of American soldiers
| For when the men come back theil
families must be waiting for them in
just as healthy and prosperous condi
ton as they were when they left The
Red Cross has pledged itself to pro
tect them. with the help and co-opera
ton of those whom the men have
gone to protect
Questions on the above or any sub
ject upon which the reader desires in
formation should be addressed the To
peka State Journal Information Blu
reau. Frederic u. Haskin, Director
| n