Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1918-07-25

organization 10 assure MIN IL neceS-
sary that the money he is sending
got through all right; that the new
baby is standing the summer heat, that
his aged mother is not suffering from
loneliness insofar as kind friends can
save her
Effective In Every Village.
1t is to make this organization COM
plete in every village and cross roads
as well as in New York or Boston that
the directors are devoting themselves
and have expressed their determine
ton to accomplish. For example, sew
eral session were devoted to discussion
of the ways in which the information
service could be improved The in
formation service is a bureau which
receives every day from all over the
country hundreds of letters sent in by
Home Service Sections asking help in
Strengthening out financial troubles in
to which soldiers families have fallen
through the failure of their allotments
or allowances to reach them. The
mistakes which the families them
selves make in filling out blanks, the
mistakes which soldiers make and the
misunderstanding that arise by acct
dent, these things added to the great
completely of the task which the War
Risk Insurance Bureau is getting ac-
complished, make a great many diff
culties. Home Service workers believe
that they have many more far-reach-
ing and subtle things to do for the
soldiers family than merely to see
that they have money until the allow
ance comes aud that a follow-up let
ter does help to straighten out the
temporary blockade. But they see that
these material things are taken care
first. AS one director said eve are
not setting up merely an information
service; that is usually no more than
our first point of contact, and we are
most emphatically not running char
ity bureaus. But along with the other
kind things that we want every SOL
dier's family to feel that the Red Cross
stands ready to do for them is to see
that they are not in need of money
when things Unexpectedly go wrong"
The Migration OF Soldiers Families.
Another newly developing phase of
American social conditions that is
making the nation wide organization
of such work necessary is the mi
grafton of soldiers families into the
cantonment and camps, towns, par
ticularly into the south. These fam
lilies frequently find themselves strand
ed in the cantonment neighborhood
after they have made their visits and
their men have gone on to France
They cannot find employment always
in the already crowded cities; they
are sometimes a charge upon the pub
lie unless they can be sent back home,
where indeed, they are usually quite
willing to go. Through the centralized
system of the Red Cross these families
are as well in touch with friends in
he new town as they are in their home
neighborhoods and a wise solution
can usually be found for their troubles
by the Home Service advisers.
More Trained Workers Needed.
The most striking need at the pres
ent moment is for more trained work
! ers and for volunteers who will take
the six weeks institute courses that
are offered in the larger cities and be-
come better workers, because of this
practical preference and training
these institutes are brief but thorough
courses in the practice of social
service
The ideally organized community"
said c. E. Stillman, associate director
in the Chicago Office, would be COM
munity where every class of people is
represented on the Home Service COM
mittee, where there are as many men
as women willing TO do visiting and
give friendly and sympathetic advice
and where the work is centralized un-
der the direction of a trained secre-
tary who gives all her time to the
work and keeps an Office to which any
one can CO."
Institute To Train Workers.
1t is to secure these trained secre-
taries that attendance at the Insti-
tutes is most needed Under the gen.
eral direction of Porter r. Lee, of
New York, and Dr. Thomas ]. Riley,
of Brooklyn, both well known in the
field of education for social work,