1941: Child Welfare

During the year 1941, because of war conditions the advancing program for children in many countries was halted and millions of children were exposed to family insecurity, migration, insufficient food and medical care, and injury from armed attack. In the United States, although family incomes rose with increasing employment, many children were adversely affected by housing congestion, lack of schools and recreation facilities, and inadequate health and welfare services in military and industrial areas where population increased rapidly because of defense activities.

In the national organization for defense, responsibility for providing for the civilian population, including children, was placed by the President with the Office of Defense Health and Welfare Services and the Office of Civilian Defense. In planning for the protection of children these offices draw upon the services of the Children's Bureau (United States Department of Labor), the Office of Education (Federal Security Agency), and other Federal agencies dealing with children. Emphasis was placed upon providing better nutrition for children, additional schools in defense areas, increased health and recreation facilities for mothers and children, and social-protective services for children and youth living under conditions of family and community instability. Some Federal funds were made available in 1941 for housing, schools, hospitals, health centers, and other community facilities.

At the close of the year it was apparent that additional funds were needed to build up maternal and child-health services and social services for children in the suddenly expanded communities. The importance of strengthening the basic network of such services in communities where they are now inadequate or nonexistent was being increasingly recognized. With the outbreak of war it was realized that the well-being of the oncoming generation is a primary objective in defense planning and that such services will be needed in reception areas if mothers and children are evacuated from danger zones.

The Office of Civilian Defense began issuing a series of manuals on volunteer service, one of which is to be a manual on volunteers in child care prepared by the Children's Bureau as a part of its advisory service on training volunteers to serve in connection with community agencies for children.

Child Health.

Continuance of the downward trend in maternal and infant mortality rates in the United States was apparent in the 1940 figures issued by the Bureau of the Census. United States Department of Commerce. The number of maternal deaths from puerperal causes was 8,876 and the rate was 38 deaths for 10,000 live births as compared with a rate of 40 for 1939. The number of deaths under one year was 110,984 in 1940 and the infant mortality rate was 47 as compared with 48 in 1939. The number of live births in 1940 was 2,360,399 and the birth rate was 17.9 per 1,000 population, showing an increase over the 1939 rate of 17.3.

Federal grants to state health agencies for maternal and child-health services for the year ended June 30, 1941, totaled $5,468,079, and the combined Federal, state, and local funds expended under this program amounted to approximately $9,000,000. The Children's Bureau of the United States Department of Labor works closely with the state health agencies in the administration of this program to extend and improve maternal- and child-health services and, insofar as funds are available, the effort is being made to initiate or increase such services to meet the needs of mothers and children in defense areas. The deferment of military service for close to 50 per cent of registrants under the selective-service system for reasons of physical disability made apparent the need to strengthen health programs for children of school age. For the year ended June 30, 1941, the state health officers reported increased attendance at prenatal clinics and child-health conferences and greater emphasis on nutrition. To a limited extent maternal- and child-health funds are being used in areas of economic need and in a few defense areas to provide direct care for individuals, including medical care for sick children in 31 counties in 10 states, hospital care for children in 14 counties in 6 states, medical care for mothers at delivery in 25 counties in 13 states, and hospitalization for mothers in 19 counties in 12 states. The program for postgraduate education in maternal and child care for practicing physicians was somewhat curtailed during the past year largely because of the withdrawal for military service of medical personnel from many areas and the consequent heavy demands on the time of physicians remaining in the community. A check in the extension of community public-health-nursing service also became apparent during the year as a result of the growing call for nurses for military service. A Federal appropriation of $1,200,000 for the training of nurses is being administered by the Public Health Service (Federal Security Agency).

Federal grants to states for services for crippled children, administered by the Children's Bureau, totaled $3,919,837 for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1941, which together with state funds meant an expenditure of approximately $6,700,000 for this purpose. A total of 307,478 crippled children were listed on state registers on June 30. Reports to the Children's Bureau show that diagnostic, medical, surgical, hospital, and aftercare services increased during the year. The calling of orthopedic and plastic surgeons into military service will probably affect the volume of service that can be given to crippled children during the coming year. An unusually large number of cases of poliomyelitis occurred during the year, necessitating supplementary Federal grants to state agencies in 8 states to enable them to provide prompt and adequate treatment for children affected. Thirteen states received Federal funds for the purpose of conducting programs for the care and treatment of children with rheumatic infection and heart disease.

Social Services.

Federal grants to the states for child-welfare services, also administered by the Children's Bureau, totaled $1,531,770 for the year ended June 30, 1941. With these funds the state welfare departments maintained state advisory and supervisory services and paid in whole or in part for the employment of child-welfare workers in 533 counties or other local areas, mostly rural. To a limited extent such workers were available in local defense areas and the demand for their services to assist families in dealing with children's problems made apparent the desirability of having such service available in all communities and especially in rapidly growing communities.

At the close of 1941, 45 states, the District of Columbia, and Hawaii were receiving Federal grants for aid to dependent children; these grants are administered by the Social Security Board (Federal Security Agency). Connecticut, Illinois, and Texas had been added to the list during the year. In September 1941 monthly benefits under this program were paid by county welfare agencies to 926,149 children in 383,796 families. Under the old-age and survivors insurance provisions of the Social Security Act, also administered by the Social Security Board, monthly benefits were in force on Dec. 31, 1941, for 123,164 children as survivors of insured persons or as children of old-age annuitants involving monthly payments totaling $1,496,965. Children in many families benefited from increasing industrial employment and the resulting increase in family incomes.

Enlarged employment opportunities led during the year to curtailment of the two Federal programs for the assistance of youth, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the National Youth Administration (NYA), and to proposals for the combination of these programs.

In 1941, in addition to Federal grants to the states for vocational education, the Federal Government made available funds for emergency defense-training programs to be administered by the Office of Education and the National Youth Administration. The training programs include short courses to refresh skills, training in single skills, courses for workers on defense jobs preparatory to upgrading, preemployment courses for specific jobs for out-of-school rural youth and other youth 17 to 24 years of age, and vocational courses for young people employed on NYA projects.

A program of more thoroughgoing training for highly skilled occupations open to workers over 16 years of age is being developed by employers under standards set by the Federal Committee on Apprentice Training of the United States Department of Labor. In October 1941, there were in operation 1,066 apprentice-training programs that met the standards set by the Federal Committee.

Upward trends in the employment rate both of children under 16 and of minors 16 and 17 years of age became marked during 1941. The younger group are going chiefly into delivery work and nonmanufacturing jobs, and, in states where there is not a 16-year minimum age for employment, into local manufacturing industries. Reports were received of difficulty in enforcing school-attendance and child-labor laws.

Under the child-labor provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act the Children's Bureau cooperates actively with the state agencies administering child-labor laws in extending the issuance of employment certificates to prevent illegal employment of minors. The rise in employment opportunities for minors in defense industries has placed a severe strain on the agencies that issue such certificates, usually the local school board.

The Chief of the Children's Bureau in 1941 issued two orders declaring certain occupations especially hazardous for minors under 18, thereby making employment of such minors in those occupations illegal under the act. The orders apply to certain occupations in logging and sawmilling operations and to the operation of power-driven woodworking machines. A proposed order relating to certain shipbuilding occupations was ready for issuance in January 1942.

The United States Supreme Court on Feb. 3, 1941, upheld the constitutionality of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, including the child-labor provisions, and expressly overruled its 1918 decision declaring unconstitutional the first Federal child-labor law, passed in 1916.

As a result of problems arising from the employment of children in street trades in Army camps, the War Department on August 16, 1941, issued a directive to camp and post commanders stating that, where applicable, the regulation of such activities should be in accord with Federal and state laws and local municipal ordinances relating to child labor.

The National Citizens Committee appointed to follow-up the White House Conference on Children in a Democracy (1940) cooperated with many state committees and organizations in the study of conditions in the light of the conference recommendations. A number of state and regional follow-up conferences were held during the year. The first Puerto Rican Child Congress was held Dec. 4-7, 1941.

On April 1, 1941, an act of Congress was approved authorizing the holding of the Eighth Pan American Child Congress in the United States. The Congress will be held May 2-9, 1942, in Washington, D. C. The Organizing Committee appointed by the Secretary of State to arrange for the Congress has as its chairman the Chief of the Children's Bureau.

Other Countries.

In Europe, the War disorganized services for children and interfered with the flow of information as to conditions affecting their welfare. Curtailment of food supplies undoubtedly is serious for children. Great Britain sought to maintain and extend as far as possible the health, social, and educational services for children. Child-labor standards were relaxed, as in Rumania, for example, where all able-bodied persons 12 years of age and over were drafted for agricultural work, and in the Soviet Union where overtime of 2 hours a day was introduced for children under 16 and up to 3 hours for older workers. In Italy a 1941 order calls for the reporting of the birth of deformed children. Spain instituted a policy of making Government loans to eligible married couples subject to a partial cancellation of the debt when a child is born.

Cooperation between the Latin American countries and the United States in behalf of children was expanded during 1941. The Children's Bureau by request sent three staff members to various countries in Central and South America to give consultation service, and plans were made for the assignment of a social worker from the Children's Bureau to the office in Montevideo, Uruguay, of the American International Institute for the Protection of Childhood. Representatives from 15 schools of social work in the various Latin American countries visited several cities and states in the United States to observe the methods used in professional training for social service and in the administration of child health and child welfare programs.

In Peru the education law of 1941 makes school attendance compulsory for children from 7 to 16 years of age and provides health services for school children. A new child-labor law in Brazil regulates the employment of children under 18. In the Federal District of Mexico under a 1941 codification of the juvenile-court law each court is to consist of a lawyer, a physician, and a teacher, and emphasis is to be placed on individualized treatment of children and on prevention and rehabilitation rather than punishment. Bureaus of nutrition were established in Bolivia and in Peru; and in Mexico the first of three 'national dining rooms' was established in November 1941 to serve as a center of education in nutrition.