The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-04-10
Liberal Viewpoint
by DIR. HARRY ELMER BARNES.

I ME clash between Bernard 5. DeutSch pres
= ident of the Board of Aldermen of New
York., and William Hodson, Commissioner of
Public Welfare and chairman of the Emergency
Relief Bureau, is one which calls for calm analy-
sis rather than emotional excitement or parti-
sanship.
Before picking the beam out of the eye of
the social workers who have had charge of the
emergency relief work, would first like to ex-
tract the mote from Mr.. Deutsch's eye. He would
turn over the Emergency Relief Administration
to group of business men, thus going to the
other extreme from the control by social work
ers. He says:
1--WE need emphasis on business administra-
ton and freedom from the professional social
service psychology"
To this the obvious answer is that if the husi-
ness men of New York and the United Sta ties
we're doing their own job of running the ~
tons business in efficient fashion there would
be no emergency relief problem. All but few
physically and mentally incompetent persons
would be employed in regular wark
It is just because our business men have not
handled their own job that we have a million
persons on relief in New York and more than
10000 900 on relief in the country as whole.
Therefore, criticism of the social work ad-
ministration of relief by business men is, quite
literally, very much like criticism of the size
of the countrys crime bill emanating from the
convict population of Sing Sing.
IF the business men Of the country wish to help
i the relief situation they can do more by set
ting the countryS industry and marketing in
order. Then there will be little unemployment
and the social workers can return to their pri-
vate charities where their ways are their own
business and need concern only those who sup
port such charities.
Mr. Deutsch wants New York relief to be
placed under three men of known business abil
ity." If there are three such men in New York
they should not be wasted on New York They
should be sent post haste to Washington to man
the business personnel in the NRA, which has
not thus far produced three with such
qualifications in any broad sense Of the term,
whatever their ability to make money for a
time.
Now for the social workers. Their defects
in relief administration are Of two major types.
One is the result of the very virtue and excel
lence Of scientific social work under normal cir
cumstances. The other is less defensible and
grows out Of the "close corporation" and ex-
allied professionalism of most present-day So
cial workers
| DOWN to about the beginning of the present
~ century social work was chiefly ameliora-
tive. 1t aimed to relieve existing poverty and
had little interest in eliminating the deeper
causes Of poverty But gradually social work
shifted its interest from relief to prevention.
The latter emphasis called for deliberate and
calm analysis of causes and a careful conSidera-
ton of the merits of each case. 1t meant some
thing more than simply handing out money for
food, clothing and shelter-the ordinary duties
of relief administration.
Social case work made necessary the profess
sional training of social workers. In order to
protect themselves social workers quite naturally
n M
sons and those who had not caught the Scien-
| tif1c conception of preventive work.
This latter tendency inevitably led to pro-
fesSional caste spirit and an inclination to value
the prescribed training for entry into the social
work guild more highly than special individual
ability.
For the most part this was all to the good in
normal times when social work was functioning
on special cases caused more by personal in
adequacy than to the general breakdown of the
economic life of the nation.
The latter-which constitutes the depression
and creates the great relief problem Of today
! has brought into existence a new and unprece-
denied problem with which the ordinary method
and perspective of professional social work are
not competent to cope.
From the standpoint of prevention and re-
Mobilization for example. it is probably more
important to spend 100000 to teach the I'M
employed to play than to put that much money
| into food and clothes But in pure relief pic
ture such expenditures do not make a good
impression.
The way out is not to turn relief over to bust
ness men or politicians. We need to exploit the
professional training and competence OF social
workers The solution is for social work to modify
its outlook and technique in the light Of the
present unique condition, to suppress the close
corporation" attitude, to welcome honest criti-
cism and full publicity, and to cooperate heart
| lily with responsible and well-meaning outsiders.