The Juvenile Protective Association OF CINCINNATI A REPORT OF ITS SECOND YEAR’S WORK Published, January 1914 ([Mirers anil txerutiue (ttommittee for IBM Rev. Frank H. Nelson. President Becker Building, 4th and Broadway. Dr. Albert H. Freiberg,. Vice-President Rev. J. W. Langdale,. Vice-President Mr. Richard Crane,. Vice-President Mr. Clifford B. Wright,. Treasurer Union Savings Bank and Trust Company. Miss Helen S. Trounstine,. Secretary 782 Clinton Springs Avenue, Avondale. Dr. Boris D. Bogen Miss M. Edith Campbell Mr. Arthur Espy Mrs. Martin Fischer Mr. F. R. Leach Mr. Guy Mallon Mr. Wm. J. Norton Prof. W. H. Parker Mrs. Julian Pollak Inarb of Dirrrlurs tUprrn rxptrrn 1914 Mr. Frank Bell Mrs. Martin Fischer Mr. Maurice Freiberg Mr. F. R. Leach Mr. Harry Levy Mrs. Elliott Pendleton Mrs. Julian Pollak Mr. Max Senior Rev. George Thayer Miss Julia Worthington Mr. Clifford B. Wright ulrrm expire 1915 Dr. Boris D. Bogen Mr. Richard Crane Mrs. Chas. Fleischmann Mr. James N. Gamble Miss Annie Laws Mrs. Clarence Mack Rev. Frank Nelson Mr. Wm. J. Norton Mr. Wm. Cooper Proctor Miss Alice Simrall Miss H£len Trounstine Olmtt rxpirra 191C Mrs. Robt. Anderson Mr. Guy Mallon Miss M. Edith Campbell Miss Emilie McVea Mrs. Thos. Emery Prof. W. H. Parker Mr. Arthur Espy Mr. J. G. Schmidlapp Dr. Albert H. Freiberg Rev. Samuel Tyler Rev. J. W. Langdale Helen S. Trounstine, Director, Office, 804 Neave Building, Cincinnati, Ohio. “ "t f ~ V H CM1 V- 7 . Jmtputlr ffrotarttu? Asaoriatum of (Ctttrimtalt. (iEn&orflpb lig tf|? (Eomtril nf Mortal Agrnrira) PURPOSE. 1. To investigate and to suppress and prevent the conditions and to prosecute persons contributing to the dependency, truancy, or delinquency of children, and to promote the welfare of children in every respect. 2. To co-operate with the Juvenile Court, Compulsory Educa¬ tion Department, State Factory Inspector, and all other child-helping agencies, and to increase their efficiency wherever possible. 3. To promote the study of child problems, and by systematic agitation, through the press and otherwise, to create a permanent public sentiment for the establishment of whole¬ some agencies, such as parks, playgrounds, gymnasiums, free baths, vacation schools, communal social centers, and the like. $3,500 a year in subscriptions and contributions is needed to efficiently carry on the work. M -o- v. I Until further notice from me to the contrary, I herewith sub¬ scribe $ . per annum to the JUVENILE PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION OF CINCINNATI thereby becoming a member of the Association. Name . Address . Date . /p... . Minimum membership fee $2.00 per annum. Checks should be made payable to the Juvenile Protective Association and mailed with this slip to 804 Neave Building, Cin¬ cinnati, Ohio. Ufpiirt of the Stmtnr. This report covers the work of the Association from No¬ vember 30, 1912, to January 1, 1914. Although it is my privilege to present this summary of our activities, most of the undertakings were planned and prosecuted under the able direction of Mr. Miles and Mr. Norton. Mr. Miles, who acted as Director of the Association during the first year of its existence, resigned in January, 1913, because of the press of other duties, when Mr. Norton generously consented to serve in that capacity until he became head of the Council of Social Agencies last May. Ever since, moreover, he has been un¬ tiring in his willingness to advise in details of the work. General Policy. The same policy which influenced the activities of the Association during its experimental year has been pursued for the past thirteen months. Emphasis has been laid upon lines of work tending toward the upbuilding of wholesome social forces or toward the control or elimination of those influences which work against the normal, physical and moral development of children and young people. Recreation Survey. Our largest undertaking, and perhaps the most important, has been a survey of recreational conditions in Cincinnati. This Survey is now in the form of a report of which 3,000 copies have been printed for distribution. Careful study was made of the recreational activities of children, of the extent and facilities of the various forms of recreation, and of the possibility of developing in Cincinnati an adequate and com¬ prehensive recreation program. A plan to have the new City Charter provide for the centralization of the administra¬ tion of recreation in a Park and Recreation Board, was formu¬ lated after a study of the facts so ascertained, and was pre¬ sented to the Charter Commission. Later, this suggestion was endorsed by the Council of Social Agencies and the Social Workers’ Club. Wholesome recreation makes for more complete living; 6 it quickens an appreciation of life’s values, so that if through our study of existing conditions we can arouse the interest of the community in furthering opportunities for healthful play, we will have done much to insure success and happiness for its future citizens. Study of Desertion. Another investigation along constructive lines was our study of desertion. The disregard by the head of the family of his or her obligation to support it, creates one of our gravest social problems, striking as it does at the very roots of family stability. The seriousness of this condition, which is a vital factor in juvenile dependency and a causative factor in juvenile delinquency, can be better realized after knowing that from various institutions and corrective agencies in the city we obtained record of 2,861 children who were not supported or actually deserted during a one-year period. Moreover, 346 of the men who shirked their parental responsibility were never found. The study was made to ascertain whether the statutes of Ohio facilitate attempts to check desertion and to determine whether methods of administering these laws have resulted in efficient control of the problem. The conclusion w r e reached was that although the laws which covered the offense of desertion are adequate except in one particular, efficient control of the evil has not been the result. We recommended, therefore, that Governor Cox instruct the State Board of Charities to conduct an investigation for the purpose of ascer¬ taining the reasons for this failure, and of suggesting a remedy. The report has been submitted to the Governor, and there is hope that our suggestion will be acted upon in the near future. Individual members of the Ohio Child Welfare League commented favorably upon the recommendation, and ten other State Legislative Reference Bureaus besides our own have asked for copies of the Report, although it is only in typewritten form. The Court of Domestic Relations. The fact was just mentioned that our laws relative to the handling' of desertion cases are inadequate in one particular. Last winter while the Legislature was in session we attempted to have this defect remedied, and the Gregory Bill to create a Court of Domestic Relations in Hamilton County was drawn up by Mr. Norton and introduced at our instigation. Our aim was to secure a Court in which could be centered all of the closely related problems touching the child and the home. Although we conducted a letter-writing campaign to secure the passage of the bill, and received the assistance and en¬ dorsement of a number of other civic and social organiza¬ tions, the opposition of the Bar Association defeated the measure. This year, the Council of Social Agencies has taken up the struggle to secure that much needed reform for Cin¬ cinnati, and we hope with better success. Report on the Contributory Delinquency Laws. While the Legislature was in session and specifically in¬ terested in the framing of statutes for the protection of chil¬ dren, we prepared a report on the existing laws relating to adults who contribute to the delinquency of minors. We pointed out their defects, and drew up, with the assistance of Mr. Nathan Isaacs, amendments to correct them. Con¬ tributory delinquency laws with reference to saloons, pool rooms, assignation houses, and stores where cigarettes are sold, are ineffective because the proprietor of these places can plead non-knowledge of law violations by way of defense, when his employees break the law. The intent of the laws when framed was undoubtedly to make the owners of such places responsible for violation of law upon their premises, but the statutes were subsequently not interpreted that way. The report was presented to Senator Greenlund but no action was taken upon it as a whole. The new Liquor License Law, however, in that section which deals with the sale of liquor to minors, has corrected the defect in that one particular. Second Investigation of the Juvenile Court. Last year one of the chief activities of our Association was the study of the work of the Juvenile Court of Hamilton County. A printed report containing recommendations for improved methods had been submitted to Judge Caldwell 8 two months before our last annual meeting. J\t the end of December, 1912, we completed a second investigation of the work of the Court, and based on the facts so ascertained, we prepared a report on the inefficiency of the Chief Probation Officer. This report, which cited twenty-seven cases within a period of eleven weeks in which Mr. Emerson had been inefficient in his duties, was submitted to Judge Caldwell on January 14th, with our request for the dismissal of his Chief Probation Officer. Judge Caldwell refused to comply with the request, in spite of his assertions on previous occasions of a desire to improve the efficiency of the court. By this decision the Judge ceased to co-operate with the Juvenile Protective Association in its efforts to secure a Juvenile Court which would safeguard the best interests of the children, so on February 3rd the Board of Directors determined to request the Judges, who designate the Juvenile Court Judge, to appoint some other Judge to serve in that capacity. Our sole aim in taking this action was to secure efficiency in the most important social agency dealing with children in the city. It was the logical outcome of our program of “follow-up work” in the Juvenile Court. Although other important philanthropic and social agencies endorsed our action, the Judges after a three-months’ delay re-appointed Judge Caldwell to serve as Juvenile Judge for one year. Our efforts have not been entirely in vain, however, for during the progress of the campaign to prevent the re-appointment of Judge Caldwell, the public was undoubtedly educated as to the conditions existing in the Juvenile Court and their grave effect upon child welfare. Other Special Investigations. Another special investigation was that of the waiting rooms in department stores. We wished to ascertain if the same conditions existed in this city as were reported in Chicago and elsewhere, where it was found that the unsupervised wait¬ ing room, as a frequent shelter for the girl out of work, was a splendid field for the Procurer. We were happy to discover, however, no such conditions existing in our city, and to find — 9 — that on the whole there were good matrons employed to take care of these places. We also investigated the candy stores and ice cream parlors which are particularly in the summer time the social meeting places of children, and we were pleased to find them on the whole, w^ell kept and well supervised. Only three slot ma¬ chines, which encourage petty gambling, were found in over forty places. The Greek Boot Blacks. A specially satisfactory piece of constructive work was accomplished with the Greek proprietors of Shoe Shining- Parlors. We had received information that the Greek boys employed as bootblacks in these parlors were often over¬ worked and ill-treated. An investigation showed that the boys were frequently brought over from Southern Greece by the proprietors for the special purpose of working in these places, and being ignorant of our language and customs, were at the mercy of their employers. They were worked from 14 to 18 hours a day, had practically no time off, not even on Sunday, and although the employers promised them from 20 to 25 per cent of the tips they received as a part of their wages, this money was sometimes withheld. The boys were clothed, fed and lodged by their employers frequently to their disadvantage. Through the co-operation of Police Court Prosecutor Fox, seven of these proprietors were arrested, either for employing boys under sixteen years of age more than ten hours a day or for not having given to minors in their employ a written statement as to the wages they were to receive. The cases were continued, and before the time of the second hearing we had secured a written agreement from the various proprietors that they would not further violate the laws relating to the employment of minors, that they would not open before seven o’clock in the morning, that they would remain closed until one p. m. on Sunday, and that the boys would be given one full day a week as their own. They also agreed to decently provide for the boy employees who lived with them, and to give them regularly from 20 to 25 per cent of the tips. 10 A conference with fifteen of the Greek shoeshining pro¬ prietors and their attorney was held in our office, and the laws relating to these subjects were explained to them. Later, also, we had a summary of these statutes translated into Greek, and printed on flyers which we distributed among the boys employed as boot-blacks, so that they might know what were their rights under the laws of Ohio. We also were able to get two young Greek boys, who had been in this country over six months and had not attended school, into special classes for foreigners. Map Showing Density of Child Population. Another piece of constructive work which has been of value to various civic agencies was the preparation of a map showing the density of child population in each precinct and Avard of the congested sections of the city. Copies of the map were presented to the Board of Park Commissioners to be used by them as a basis for the future establishment of play¬ grounds, to the Superintendent of Public Schools, to the Di¬ rector of Social Centers, and on request to the Secretary General of the Association des Cites-Jardins de Paris, France. The statistics were secured through the courtesy of Chief of Police Copelan, who permitted us to have access to the Police Census from which we tabulated the age, sex and color of each child. On our own map, when completed, was then marked the location of the various places of commercial recreation, public playgrounds and social settlements which provide recre¬ ational facilities, and it was hung by the Board of Park Com¬ missioners in their section of the Budget Exhibit. Co-operation with the Park Board. Throughout the year we have had the privilege of further co-operating with the Board of Park Commissioners, and among other things our complaint as to the inadequate super¬ vision of Hopkins Park resulted in the re-arrangement of some of the low foliage in the park, so as to make it more open to the inspection of the police. We also prepared for their consideration a chart showing the urgent need of locating 11 a playground near Pleasant and Liberty Streets instead of in Washington Park, as they proposed. Home and School Visiting. Another line of activity which we fostered this past year was home and school visiting. During the winter of 1912 and the spring of 1913, two of the large public schools located in congested sections of the city were provided through us with volunteer workers who visited the homes of those chil¬ dren whose physical condition or general conduct showed the need of social service in their homes. This winter Miss Julia Worthington has undertaken the work in connection with the Sixth District School, where, with the co-operation of Mr. Hauer, the principal, she has rendered faithful service in cor¬ recting those conditions which often lead to juvenile de¬ linquency or dependency. The field of this activity might be enlarged to advantage if the right volunteers could be found. General Supervision of Centers of Delinquency. Our policy of general investigation and supervision of those places which are known to contribute to the delinquency of minors was continued during the year. Because of the lack for the greater part of the time of a man field investigator, this work was not as extensive as it could have been. Certain improvements, however, were secured. The Excursion Boats. The Coney Island Boats, which the }^ear previous, were in a very bad condition, were complained of again early in the spring. An investigation showed that the boats were insuf¬ ficiently lighted and supervised, and that the sanitary arrange¬ ments were very bad. After several conferences with the Manager of the Company, a matron was installed in the woman’s rest room, the supervision of the police became more strict, the captain or mate made half-hourly rounds of the decks, and the boats were cleaned up. These improved con¬ ditions were maintained throughout the summer, as our in¬ vestigator continued to make weekly trips on the boats. The lighting on one of the boats is still inadequate, however. 12 The Public Dance Hall. The Public Dance Halls also received our special attention. In December, 1912, a report was submitted to Mayor Hunt, setting forth the terrible conditions, which menaced the de¬ cency and morality of the young people of the community, existing in these places at that time. The Mayor called a conference of the various dance hall proprietors and advised them to mend their ways. For a while his admonition had the desired effect. This fall, however, a second investigation showed that matters were as bad as before, and finally in December, 1913, we secured the conviction of the proprietor of Central Turner Hall for the sale of liquor on the floor of a public dance hall. This conviction and a subsequent warning which we sent out to alt other proprietors has resulted in a decided improvement in the conditions under which our public dances are conducted. To make this improvement permanent, however, v/e must work to secure the passage of an ordinance providing for the strict supervision of public dance halls. Protests Against Applicants for Saloon Licenses. In line with our attempt to eliminate centers of delin¬ quency, protests were drawn up and filed with the Liquor License Commission against seven applicants for licenses. These protests were based on the past history of the applicants with reference to their records of contributing to delinquency. In the first license list given out by the License Commissioners only one of the seven against whom we protested secured a license, but later on in the revision of the list two others were granted licenses, and still another has recently secured a license through the granting of a transfer. Case Work. Case work has been continued during the year, but the extension of this activity has not been sought. We have only handled those cases where the interests of the children concerned could be best protected by our taking legal action in their behalf. Thus, fifteen adults were prosecuted for offenses against minors. A conviction was secured in every 13 case except the seven Greek cases, which were dismissed at our request. The following shows the results in detail: Offense Number Result Illegal employment of minors. 7 1 dismissed, 2 fined $25 and costs, 3 fined $5 and costs, 1 fined $5 and costs, suspended Withholding wages of a minor. 1 Fined $50 and costs and ordered to re¬ fund the $59 with- Employing a minor without giving him a written held. agreement as to the wages he shall receive.. 6 Dismissed. Selling intoxicating liquor in connection with a public dance.. 1 Fined $15 and costs. In addition, seven cases were investigated before being referred to the proper agency; twenty cases were investigated and warnings given against further violations of law, and three cases were referred to the proper agency without in¬ vestigation. Co-operation with Other Social and Civic Agencies. Mr. Silvester, when field worker of the Association, and your Secretary co-operated with the Woman’s Civic Commis¬ sion when it first started to conduct the popular supervised dances at Music Hall. During the floods of January and March of last year their services were likewise used by the Citizens’ Flood Relief Committee. They also addressed a number of clubs and classes on subjects relating to child wel¬ fare and the work of the Association. The Future of the Association. Although the Association last year did not always reach the goal it set out for, it consistently used its efforts in the interest of the children of the community, whom it was pledged by its constitution to protect. With the continued assistance of as devoted and unselfish an Executive Committee and as public spirited a Board of Directors as determined its policies in the past, the Association must some day realize at least in part the ideal toward which it is striving, namely, a wise and splendid city fostering those influences which make for free and happy childhood and strong and joyous youth. 14 <El}t 3lttum g>autn0s Sank mb (SIrnfit ffinntpamj AS AGENT FOR C. B. Wright, Treasurer OF Gtye 3lutt*nilr Proterttue Afiaoriattun STATEMENT OF RECEIPTS AND DISBURSEMENTS For the Year Ending December 31, 1913 Jan. 1, 1913, Balance.$ 132.25 RECEIPTS. Total contributions for year 1913.$1,882.50 Sundry sources, sale of Manuels, etc. 23.18 DISBURSEMENTS. Dance Hall Investigation.$ 31.05 Moving Picture Investigation. 8.75 Salaries . 1,047.84 Sundry expense. 355.86 Balance . 594.43 $2,037.93 $2,037.93 Jan. 1, 1914, Cash on hand. $ 594.43 Cincinnati, Ohio, January 21, 1911. The Union Savings Bank & Trust Co., By John Bradley, for Trust Officer. Examined and approved By E. J. Langhorst, Bookkeeper. 15 JJretrimtB JJubltratttfttB REPORT ON THE TRUANCY DEPARTMENT OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION (Abridged). REPORT ON THE JUVENILE COURT OF HAMILTON COUNTY (Abridged). THE JUVENILE LAWS OF OHIO, A Manual for Social Workers, Price, 25 cents. RECREATION SURVEY OF CINCINNATI. Copies may be obtained upon application to the office, 804 Neave Building. '74