Library Collections: Document: Full Text

-1- Henry C. Wright, Survey of Cripples in New York City, N. Y., 1920. Printed and distributed by the New York Committee on After-Care of Infantile Paralysis Cases,

Name
Case Number
Sex
Age
Lives with
Time in U. S.
Address
Time in State.
Apartment
Birthplace of patient
Borough
Birthplace of father
Block
Birthplace of mother
Color
Married or single
Name of husband or wife
Nearest relatives (names and ages of children)
Name of last employer
Name of Physician (last date)
Name of hospital or clinic (last date)
Church (last date)
Transportation furnished by (walks, free bus, car line, etc.)
Help needed (why), or vice versa
General condition (good, fair, or infirm)
Education (common school, high school, special, school for cripple, home teaching.........private or public).
(Date began-Date ended)
Support before and after handicap.
Income per week (Family, family pension, or assistance of relatives.)
Name of relief institution, and dates.
Name of canvasser, investigator, and agency.
Date.

Because the effort to aid the 350,000 physically handicapped children of this continent is a comparatively new field of philanthropy and needs intensified activity, because cripples of any age are particularly difficult to locate, due to the traditional disgrace attached to this condition, because any worthy field of philanthropic endeavor is essentially the responsibility of neighbors, and because such service is highly valuable to the happiness of those who serve, the wide-spread participation a social agencies in the movement to aid crippled children is necessary and highly valuable to those who are aided and those who participate.

CHAPTER V.

LEGISLATION

Early in the fall of 1896, a group of staid adults, charity workers, and physicians, assembled in an open meeting of the Minnesota Conference of Charities and Corrections, were astonished to find themselves confronted by a twelve year old crippled child. The little girl, Jennie Haskins, by name, was pleading for the support of this body toward the erection of a state hospital for crippled children. The late Dr. Arthur J. Gillette, then a young and rising orthopedic surgeon, supplemented the little girl's address with a paper on the Duty of the State to the Crippled Child. Although the idea was a new one, the untiring efforts of the young orthopedist secured a hearing for it at the next session of the Minnesota Legislature.

When the politicians met in April, the little girl and her professional friend once more delivered their pleas. They told of the little cripples for whom neither care nor education was available; and, forgetting political obligations and agreements, one after another the representatives rose and signified their approval of the first legislative act in the United States to provide care, education, and treatment for crippled and deformed children. On Apri1 23d, the Governor signed his name to Chapter 289 of the Minnesota Laws of 1897, and a hospital was soon ready for occupancy.

"Laws," say Professors A. W. Small and G. E. Vincent, "are regulative principles which shall secure that co-ordination of activities which is essential to social existence and growth. They are the embodiments of psychical modifications in social knowledge, feeling and volition."-1- The enactment of laws to provide and regulate machinery for the care and education of crippled children was a natural result of increasing social interest in this problem. More than half of the states in the Union have already made some legislative provision for this purpose and agitation in others is aiming toward this end.

-1-An Introduction to the Study of Society. Ch. V, ss 194, 195, pp. 357-8.

From an economic standpoint such laws should aim first to avoid pauperization of the families of the children. It is advantageous neither to parents nor patients to make available an unlimited number of hospital beds free of charge. Even in states where provision has been made against such possibilities, parents have been known to attempt to use political influence to keep children in custody longer than is necessary. The result of this action is to deprive other and more needy little ones of remedial facilities and at the same time to pauperize the families thus aided.

Such laws should distribute the public cost of these facilities as fairly as possible, both to relieve the state of a large burden, and to apportion the charges according to the number of patients aided in the various districts. They should, at the same time have the funds necessary for cure and education constantly available, in order that local economic depression should not deprive the children of thoroughly necessary assistance.

From the standpoint of the problem itself, legislative action to aid crippled children primarily should bring the facilities to the children. A single institution, scholastic or curative, located in a central portion of a state, will distribute the benefits of appropriations only to a small proportion of the needy ones. Such legislation should further avoid discouragement of private philanthropy. Too often public institutions or public subsidies to private organizations remove the inducement for private charity. Such legislation should be enacted in a form which will guarantee continuance of efforts to aid crippled children, regardless of economic conditions and regardless of political influences. Finally, the possibility of political influence in the operation of such laws absolutely should be avoided.