Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-04-14

entered the Hastings Law col
lege. l got a job in the office of
prominent attorney"
why did you give up the law
office job?" he was asked.
Sapiro plunged one, hand in
his pocket and his face grew
very serious. well, you see,"
he explained, chose years in
the orphanage had so SCARED
me that the scar remained, and
I never could stop thinking of
the other boys and girls out
there. They were suffering what
I had suffered. Sometimes [
couldn't sleep from thinking of
it. Finally, I sat down and
wrote out fifty or sixty of my
strongest grievances against the
institution and delivered them to
the president Of the board of
trustees. So tremendously shock
ed was he that he sent for me
and offered me the position of as
sistant superintendent. 1 told
him that L would take the job
under two conditions; that I
could continue my law studies
and that l should have real au-
thority to change the existing
order of things. He agreed.
Il guess [ turned that orphan
age inside out. First, L tackled
the dining room. where I cut the
long tables up into small, socia-
BILE ones. bought decent dishes,
laid in a stock of white table
cloths and napkins, and hung
UP some white curtains at the
window and some pictures on
the wall. Then, with the help
of one of the University of Cali
fornia professors and his wife,
who was a dietetic expert, we
worked out menus made up of
palatable, nourishing foods
after having first fired the old
cook!
Meantime We had physical
examination of all the children,
and found that on the average
they were about four years sub
normal in physical development.
Moreover, many of them were
suffering from all kinds of all
ments. We saw that these got
proper medical attention.
Il kicked out all the old beds,
whose iron Stats left marks for
weeks on q new boys ribs, and I
put in shower baths to replace
those awful old tanks. Then I
instituted modern system of
government in which the
boys and girls not only tried
their own offenders, but made
the regulations under which the
institution was run"
In 1911 Sapiro was graduated
from the Hastings Law college.
Having led his class. he was
selected to represent the law
school in the commencement ex-
ercises of the University of CALI
tornia. Governor Hiram John
son and several other leaders of
progressive legislation, were in
the audience. All of them were
impressed both by what Sapiro
had to say and the way he said
it. This resulted in his appoint
ment a few months later, as Sec
rotary of the newly organized
industrial accident board, which
was charged with the hearing
and investigation of the com.
plants of injured workmen, I'M
der the newly-enacted work
mems compensation act.
Sapiro's two years in this Of
tlce were significant. Finding
the existing compensation law
crude and ineffective, he assist
ed in writing a new law, which
was passed by the Legislature.
Later, as the legal representa-
tive of the state of California,
he defended the constitutionality
Of this act in the courts and
won a complete victory. This law
has since been copied by many
other states.
In 1913, he resigned his office
and went into private practice.
Much of his time, however. was
devoted to a study of co-opera-
tive marketing systems-a sub
ject on which he has become
such an authority that today he
is the leader Of half a million
farmers and is the man above all
others who is pointing the way
toward a successful method of
marketing the southern cotton
crop.