This term used in this article, comprises all privately-operated, non-profitmaking institutions and agencies specifically concerned with the prevention, amelioration, care or treatment of poverty, dependency, delinquency and disease, as well as the positive promotion of socially desirable conditions.
Impact of the First Year of War.
The year after Pearl Harbor brought many changes in the field of private social work. One pleasant surprise to social agencies was the record public response to appeals for funds, upsetting gloomy predictions that steep declines in contributions would result from the considerable rises in taxes and in living costs. The increase in private giving is indicated by the fact that 619 community chests raised a record total of $103,411,123 in 1942 as compared with $90,379,099 raised for 1941.
Community chests are central fund-raising agencies that conduct a single periodical campaign, the receipts of which are divided among member private agencies in the community according to a pre-arranged budget. The trend toward combining such chests with 'war chests' (united drives for war services) continued at an accelerated pace during 1942.
Foreign War Relief.
Numerous private agencies for foreign war relief sprang up during the first two years of World War II, most of them concerned with the victims of Axis aggression. In the absence of adequate supervision and coordination, there was a great deal of duplication, waste, inefficiency arising from the mushrooming of such agencies, together with some evidences of fraudulent practice. There also developed much rivalry and friction among these agencies, and between them and home front organizations.
The complicated and confused situation caused President Roosevelt early in 1941 to appoint a Committee on War Relief Agencies, headed by Joseph E. Davies, to study and report on war-relief conditions.
On July 16, 1942, this Committee reported that nearly $100,000,000 had been raised for foreign relief, excluding Red Cross activities, since the onset of war in 1939. It further reported that the number of agencies collecting funds for foreign relief had been reduced to 300, as compared with 700 during the peak period in early 1941. It recommended further coordination and mergers among these agencies and the establishment of a central control board to accomplish these and other purposes.
Mr. Roosevelt thereupon reorganized his committee as the President's War Relief Control Board. This agency was empowered to control all fund-raising and disbursements in cash or in kind of 'charities for foreign and domestic relief, rehabilitation, reconstruction and welfare arising from war-created needs in the United States or in foreign countries.' Local charitable activities of a normal and usual character, and intra-state activities other than those immediately affecting the war effort, were expressly exempted from this control, as was the American Red Cross.
In August 1942, ten major war relief agencies — including the British War Relief Society, Russian War Relief, China War Relief, the USO, Greek War Relief — jointly announced that they would seek a total budget of $75,659,000 for the ensuing year.
Developments on the Home Front.
The rapid expansion of war production and a corresponding drop in unemployment resulted in a marked decline in relief rolls among private family agencies as well as public welfare agencies. Attention was increasingly focused on war-boom areas — centers of industrial production and army cantonment sites — where acute housing, health and welfare problems resulted from the sudden influx of large numbers of workers.
Private and public agencies were beset with the question of increasing juvenile delinquency, lack of adequate day-care facilities for children of working mothers and other social problems of wartime. The division of responsibility between private and public groups for checking these conditions was much discussed, with the question of financing a paramount issue. The President's announcement toward the end of 1942 that the Work Projects Administration would be completely liquidated in the next few months aggravated the situation, since that agency had assumed responsibility for many social services, such as operation of day nurseries, that now must be taken over in part by private organizations.
Personnel.
Many private social agencies were hard hit by the loss of experienced, professional staff members to the armed forces or to war services such as the USO and the Red Cross. Increasing dependence had to be placed on the recruiting of volunteer aides to assist regular employes in conducting social services on the home front. Many agencies had to curtail their activities because of staff reduction; several had to suspend activity completely.
In addition the operation of the Selective Service Act, and particularly of the 'teen-age amendment passed by Congress in the fall of 1942, caused a sharp decline in students of social work schools.
United Service Organization.
Next to the American Red Cross, this is the largest private war service agency in the United States. Formed in February 1941, as a government-sponsored but privately operated group, the USO provides recreational and other services for men in the armed forces, and, to a lesser extent, for war workers. It consists of six member agencies — the Young Men's Christian Associations, Young Women's Christian Associations, National Catholic Community Service, Jewish Welfare Board, Salvation Army, and the National Travelers Aid Association.
The USO expanded its program rapidly after Pearl Harbor. On Jan. 1, 1942, it was operating 250 USO units — recreation centers, clubs, lounges, etc. By the end of the year it had 1,200 units going in 558 American cities and towns, and also in offshore and hemisphere bases such as Alaska, Hawaii, Newfoundland, the Caribbean and Brazil. USO Camp Shows had 70 professional companies touring bases and camps in this country, giving performances for service men. It also sent professional troupes to the European Theatre of Operations, and USO units are entertaining American soldiers in North Africa and Australia.
United Seamen's Service.
The year was marked by the establishment of a new national welfare agency of large proportions. The United Seamen's Service was launched in the fall of 1942 as a private organization with official government sponsorship, to provide for men of the American merchant marine the same types of service the USO affords to men in the armed forces. The USS is a war-inspired agency, resulting from a wide public recognition of the heroism of merchant seamen and their crucial work in the war effort. Unlike the USO, however, the USS is a permanent organization that will continue to serve merchant seamen after the war. Based on an initial fund of $5,000,000 raised by private contributions, the USS is establishing recreation and rest centers for merchant seamen in key American and Allied ports, together with convalescent homes for survivors of torpedoed ships, and other sea catastrophes.
Sources of Funds.
Private social agencies generally have profited from private and corporate income tax deductions for charitable gifts and contributions. One of the year's most significant developments in fund-raising was the considerable increase of direct labor union participation in community chest and war-service campaigns. This increased activity has brought hundreds of thousands of new contributors among working people into the fund-raising pool of private social agencies. It accelerates a trend already discernible some years ago.
Community chest funds were distributed mainly among family welfare agencies, homes for the aged, children's aid societies, day nurseries, children's institutions, hospital and health services, recreation and other leisure-time activities.
No comments:
Post a Comment