| Show T shall hall we ir pauperize pauperize the state by JOS A GEDDES president utah state conference of social work BETTER administrative MACHINERY IS AN IMPORTANT NEED IN UTAH COUNTIES TODAY note in view of the fact that rural utah counties are only beginning to make provisions for the improvement of relief administration through t the h e co county anty government this article from dr joseph A ged bcd des of the utah state agricultural college has special significance ance for relief agencies as well as county officials and taxpayers the first great need of county welfare work in utah at the present time is improved administration salt lake and carbon counties are the only two counties in the state in which the county commissioners ners have any trained help to assist them in handling a job that not only involves large outlays of money but is intricate and c complex 0 m p I 1 c x commissioners have many diverse problems to work out in this field where a profession sion is in process of emerging expert guidance Is necessary if practices do not fall far behind the levels of other parts of the country W elf am work I 1 im has outgrown the old machinery A recent survey of a moderate sized county showed that the recorded relief of various types type s reached ached a total of last year unrecorded giving would probably bring this figure up to or more of this sum the county gave without qualified help lp to investigate to administrate or to follow up and check fifteen other agencies of various kinds dabbled with relief among these were rotary kiwanis lions elks B E P W american legion a literary club etc none of these organizations have any kind of trained help for this work at this rate in the course of 10 years this relatively poor county would spend nearly a million dollars through machinery that as it works out is unfair is an education in pauperism and is wasteful this strong statement requires proof let us have it unfairness inherent in old machinery can a county commission with hundreds of other matters to attend to successfully withstand the vociferous demanding poor in favor of the more needy but retiring quiet kind or turn a deaf ear to local leaders who are on the job looking after the poor of their particular towns the study above referred to showed that eight towns in the county received no county aid whatever while one town had 28 la ta milies per 1000 of population on the couney roll or about one in seven of the population the average for the county was one in 17 seven towns were well above the average nineteen were below and aad eight received no help quite obviously unfairness is is the distribution of the peales money in in the welfare field is in evidence this does not mean necessarily that the county commissioners are unfair it means that they are arc the victims of a system that works unfairly the in most important points at which the present system works unfairly are 1 acceptance of applications for aid 2 the length of time a recipient remains on the roll and 3 in the allotments of taxes the system now used in th the counties promotes pauperism the relatively poor quality of administration in the system tends i to leave the client in the economic slew into which he has fallen it is the usual thing for those who once get on the county roll to remain there for life meanwhile children are often growing up in the aided family getting used to the idea of receiving help an and learning to play the role which brings it independence is an american brict om trait the nation was nurtured bred and bom in it it with us it is more than an ideal it is an accomplished trait of character in its nurture and preservation undoubtedly lies the hope of the nations future the extent to which we are slipping Is evident on all sides our economic decline Is t more than paralleled by our spiritual losses farm relief soldier bonus pensions free wheat relief on a large scale poor administration have combined bombin 4 to multiply the number who are willing even anxious to play the part of the pauper this trend must be checked the first requisite Is the development of adequate administrative machinery the present methods are wasteful in the far off future it is conceivable cei vable to look for an economic social system in which relief win will be at u minimum it may possibly be eliminated entirely before such a happy day comes there will not only be great revisions of the economic system but practical eugenics will have eliminated the ur t who 3 3 freely reproduce themselves today cut the present generation must work under the existing order it must face the maladjustments of a aar rapidly adly changing age in which great forces are unleashed which our system is unable to satisfactorily control today wage wage earners carriers are unemployed the farm population of about is undergoing an unprecedented strain relief is considered no longer in terms of thousands of dollars or even millions it requires billions As an resources have havea declined emphasis has shifted from private resources to public and from public local to state and federal today a federal relief measure is in prospect are arc we spending too much anyone informed of conditions knows that we are not spending too much but he does know that much of it is being spent wastefully Ei evidences dences of AV waste aste 1 it is a common practice in utah counties to increase county aid during good times and cut down severely during depressions here is an example aid given in 1920 prosperous year ivear 1921 depression year aid given in 1929 prosperous year 1932 depression year expected appropriation if the people in this county could get along during the hard years of 1921 24 with an average of per year why did I 1 they need an average of during the good years of 1925 29 if these increased appropriations were expended on rehabilitation i and prevention no waste need develop but the counties have no machenry mac hinry to do this kind of work there is evidence of both waste and pauperization here 2 A rate of families on the county roll per 1000 of population in one town or about one in seven Is inexcusable in a rural farming fanning community another agency la Is helping about one fam family lly in five in this same town it Is high time to lay emphasis on some other things than on mere relief when conditions reach this stage 3 eight towns in one county wl with th no county aid probably means wastage of another kind wastage in future physical health vocational efficiency normal cultural 1 well vell being for the oncoming generation era tion 4 fifteen agencies dabbling with relief in a county seat with no agency maintaining a quality of service which entitles it to membership in the family faintly welfare association of america and with only one agency which maintains a volunteer service means wastes of no small proportions the generous hearted people who want to do something collectively and insist that the organization to which they belong do it are probably now aware that such service Is likely to do an aa much harm probably more than good 5 the combination plan sometimes followed in the counties of utah by which the county furnishes funds and distributes them through the L D S bishops falls fails to work out well for the reason that these bishops are generally not trained in welfare work some are very active in getting county aid for their own ward membership and recommend applicants freely to the county commissioners others make few recommendations the result Is gross inequality 6 utah counties like counties counti es in other states are not immune to the encroachments encroach ments and demands of politics wastes and favoritism develop 7 waste arises out of leaving names on the county roll too long some never should be on relatively few should remain on for life the county commissioners are in much the same position in this matter as the state board of pardons used to be before it obtained some trained help to make recommendations they were simply swamped having no effective administrative service the county commissioners have no way of determining when a name should be dropped the loudest speaker tends to stay on and many quiet people learn leam how to speak loudly thus a rising tide of difficulties beats upon the counties as increasing need and larger funds are handled through an inadequate administrative service today a prime need of each county is a well trained social worker instead of giving indiscriminately the many clubs in the counties would do more effective service if they would get together and assist the county commissioners to organize efficient administrative machinery one good case worker would earn her salary many times over and would save to those most in need much that now goes elsewhere she would also save to hundreds of families the vital vi t al spark of independence on which the strength of a people rests remember the good old days when you thought any which had a street car line of its own was a real metropolis |
