USA > Pennsylvania > Allegheny County > Pittsburgh > Fifteen years of civic history. Civic club of Allegheny County, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. October, 1895-December, 1910 > Part 6
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8
THE SURVEY 1907 In January, 1907, the Charities and Commons of New York, desiring to publish a special Pittsburgh edition, through Mr. Paul Kellogg, asked that the Civic Club help meet the expense of this publication by a donation to cover the detailed investigation dealing with poverty.
Miss McKnight, then President of the Club, was very enthusiastic over the plan and appointed Miss Edna Meeker as Chairman of a committee for this special work. Miss Louisa W. Knox volunteered her services as special investigator. Poverty, its phases, its preven- tion; charitable agencies, their methods, subsidy and sources of revenue, were to be the specific matters in- vestigated. Mr. Kellogg having been informed of the Civic Club's assistance through a special investigator, further suggested that a donation for expert survey, such as traveling and hotel expenses of heads of the depart- ments supervisiing this work, would be appreciated. In response to this suggestion the Civic Club contributed $50.00. The original plan was never put in operation, for the work, once begun, developed such proportions that the plan to embrace the whole report in one edition of the magazine was abandoned. The Russell Sage
75
CIVIC CLUB OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY
Foundation assumed the financial obligations and ulti- mately stood sponsor for the project.
GREATER PITTSBURGH Possibly the greatest 1907 cause for public rejoicing in 1907 was the fact that the actual consolidation of Pittsburgh and Allegheny was effected in December of that year through laws passed at a special session of the Legislature in April, 1906, voted upon in the two cities in June of the same year and sustained by the Supreme Court in 1907. The contest over this progressive step was long drawn out and the Civic Club was proud to have been among the other civic bodies that co-operated, and sent representa- tives to Harrisburg to speak in favor of the consolida- tion of the twin cities.
INCREASED GAS RATES The Civic Club sent 1907
representatives to Har- risburg when Mayor Guthrie lifted his hand against the unwarranted raise in the price of gas, and stood ready to serve in the best course deemed advisable to pursue against this monopoly.
STATE LEGISLATION The beginning of the year 1907
1907 ushered in the legisla- tive session in Harris- burg, which incidentally increased the Club's activities and directed its energies toward securing better legisla- tion for Child Labor, to safeguard the interests of the thousands of children of the State of Pennsylvania; Compulsory Education, an important measure to har- monize compulsory education law with factory law;
76
CIVIC CLUB OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY
Civil Service Reform; Free Library Commission, to send school libraries into districts which had no access to public libraries; regulation of sweat-shop work; protection of children from neglect, cruelty and abandonment; better Juvenile Court legislation ; Juvenile Court Fee Bills; limited probationary system for convicts, to provide a humane and wise system of probation for convicts in penitentiaries which would give them a chance to "try again" for a better life; Anti-Expectoration; regulation of billboards; two Bills introduced by the Civic Club, one for Free Medical Inspection in Schools, and one revising the Tenement House Laws for cities of the second class, (both of which were lost) ; and Camp Schools for Foreigners, to provide for establishment of schools where foreigners may receive instruction in English.
FEDERAL LEGISLATION In 1907 Civic Club urged the passage of a National Pure Food Bill, and joined with the American Civic Association in the fight to save Niagara Falls from com- mercial vandalism. The latter, while regulated to a small extent, is by no means a settled question.
Washington the
MISS McKNIGHT'S The death of Miss Kate Cas- DEATH satt McKnight on August 15th,
1907 1907, came as a crushing blow not only to the Civic Club. whose President she had been since 1902, but to the en- tire community.
It has not been possible in the foregoing history of the Civic Club to show the part which she, as one of its founders, took in each individual movement; but she
77
CIVIC CLUB OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY
gave freely of her time, her ability, her strength; and her purse was open, not only for her public works, but for many private charities.
Her patience with troublesome questions, her self- denial and heroism, her cheerfulness, unselfishness, charity and kindly thoughtfulness have left their imprint upon the work which she promoted and fostered and upon the workers with whom she came in contact and who loved her.
Miss McKnight was especially fitted, by natural en- dowment and special study, to foster all forms of civic betterment and public education. Her high ideals, patriotism, devotion, loyalty and faith in the city which her forefathers had founded formed the underlying principles of her life work, and proved the altar upon which she laid her life as a sacrifice.
HOME FOR TRUANT CHILDREN 1907 In order to cover the problem . dealing with the truant child as taken up by the Educa- tional Department of the Civic Club, it is necessary to go back five years. At this time in Western Pennsylvania there were but two insti- tutions for the care of delinquent boys and girls: Mor- ganza, the reform school (a State institution), and the Boys' School at Oakdale, which preferred to take only homeless and more or less dependent white boys ; there- fore there was no place to send the incorrigible child or habitual truant save to the former institution. A com- mittee with Dr. Francis Henry Wade as Chairman was appointed in January 1902 to ascertain if any further legislation would be necessary to enable it to have truant children committed to its care in a house of de- tention, if such a home should be established by the Civic Club. It was found that additional legislation was not necessary according to a legislative enactment,
78
CIVIC CLUB OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY
known as "An Act to provide for the attendance, and for reports of attendance of the children in the schools of this Commonwealth". In view of this fact the Chair- man advocated the establishment of a home for the com- mitment of such truant children as were being sent to Morganza. The detail matter connected with this move- ment covered a long period. In included the collection of data covering the number of truant children sent to the truant school, and the number of the habit- ual or
incorrigible truants sent to the reform
school. It included numberless interviews with the boards of control and directors, truant officers, etc. The investigation resulted in an effort to raise the standard of the truant school and to assist the truant officers to place the children in private homes. In 1905 the committee, with Mrs. J. P. O'Connor, Chairman, again took up the investigation and was in turn followed by a committee reorganized under Mrs. V. Matthews, to consider the establishment of a truant school in Pitts- burgh. A number of meetings were held, and the sub- ject thoroughly discussed with various people and repre- sentatives of several associations likely to be most inter- ested, including the Juvenile Court Association, Central Board of Education, the Principals' and Teachers' Asso- ciations, Allegheny County Bar Association, City and County Controllers, and County Commissioners. The conclusion was finally reached that the need of our com- munity was broader than could be served solely by a truancy school. That there are quite a number of in- corrigible truants who vex the school principals and teachers was found to be true, but the number was not so great as to justify the establishment of an expensive school to meet that need alone. It developed, however, while pursuing this subject, that there was quite an imperative need for a training school for boys in our community, to which the Juvenile Court might commit incorrigible truants and other delinquent boys.
In 1908 this committee also took up with the proper
79
CIVIC CLUB OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY
authorities the possibility of securing the Allegheny City Poor-farm at Claremont, (it being rumored that it might be abandoned upon the consolidation of the two cities), for use as an industrial home for the children who came under the care of the Juvenile Court. It was learned that there was no immediate likelihood of any change being made whereby the Poor-farm would be used for any other purposes than at present.
The Truancy Committee, therefore, after carefully. canvassing the entire subject, reported in September, 1908, to the Board of Directors of the Civic Club their finding-that the greatest community need was for a boys' training school to be established either by the City, County or State.
The report of Mrs. Matthews' committee having been considered and accepted by the Board of Directors of the Civic Club, it appointed a steering committee to use the information gathered by the Truancy Committee and to take charge of the promotion of such a school. The Truancy Committee merged with the above com- mittee and the solution of the problem followed in the years 1908 and 1909.
ALLEGHENY COUNTY With the creation of a INDUSTRIAL AND TRAINING SCHOOL FOR BOYS 1908
steering committee which was to make definite plans for a home for boys of the Juvenile Court (including incorrigible truants, delin- quents, etc.,) Rev. R. M. Little was appointed Chair- man in September, 1908. Discussion was at first cen- tered upon the establishment of a State school, parental as distinguished from penal in its type, to serve Alle- gheny and surrounding counties, the board of nine mem- bers to be appointed by the Governor. Finally, however, it was decided to try to get a provision for such a school incorporated into the School Code, then being prepared
80
CIVIC CLUB OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY
by the State School Commission. Accordingly a draft of the plan for a training school was sent to the Secre- tary of the State Commission, Prof. George W. Phillips, West Chester, Pa., for the Commission's consideration. The subject was also discussed with Mr. D. B. Oliver, the Pittsburg representative on that Commission, in per- son. The School Commission declined to incorporate this feature in the School Code, and this necessitated the consideration of some other method of procedure.
Finally the committee unanimously decided to have a Bill drafted applicable to Allegheny County, the board of nine members to be appointed by the Common Pleas Judges, which members in conjunction with the three County Commissioners should establish the school, and have it in immediate charge. The money for its, estab- lishment and maintenance was to be provided by the County.
When this plan for the school was fully decided upon, a sub-committee, in conjunction with Mr. George Alter, a member of the Civic Club and representative from the Thirteenth Legislative District, redrafted the subject matter into the form of a Bill, which after hearty approval on the part of the committee, was introduced into the House by Mr. Alter, under whose most skilful management it passed both Houses as drafted, without opposition, and was signed by Governor Stuart on May 1, 1909. Great credit is due to Representative Alter for his masterly handling of this matter in the Legislature.
The text of the Bill, in brief, is a mandatory provi- sion for the establishment of schools supplementary to the school system of the Commonwealth in each county having a population of 750,000 and not over 1,200,000; said schools to be open the entire year, and established on the cottage home plan, to be presided over by a superintendent, trained in educational and social work; the buildings to be substantially constructed, provided with baths, play-grounds, sleeping-rooms and kitchen; ample grounds to be provided for farming, dairying, and
81
CIVIC CLUB OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY
out-door recreation; and that as far as possible the men- tal, moral, and physical welfare and advancement of the children therein detained be adequately provided for. The schools shall be established on farms, and managed by the Board of Managers, nine of whom shall be ap- pointed by the Judges of the Courts of Common Pleas, who with the County Commissioners shall constitute said Board. The appropriation for this school to be paid by the County, either by tax levy or by issue of bonds as the County Commissioners shall deem wise. After the law had been enacted, the Civic Club committee de- cided that it would be entirely proper for a sub-com- mittee from their number to wait upon the Board of Judges. The Committee appraised the Judges of the nature of the law, its pressing need and the importance. of the early appointment of the Board of Managers. The Board of Judges thereupon granted the sub-committee a hearing in June, 1909, and within two weeks the Board of Managers was appointed. As Chairman of the steer- ing committee, Dr. Little was made a member of this Board, as were also several other members of the Civic Club.
Preliminary to formulating plans for the school, the Board took hold of the enterprise with intelligence and interest, and there is every reason to believe that in the near future Allegheny County will have a training school for delinquent boys, helpful to the boys, a credit to the County and State and an honor to the Civic Club which conceived and promoted the enterprise.
The School will be known as the Allegheny County Industrial and Training School for Boys, and is to be located at Thorn Hill, Marshall Township, Allegheny and Butler Counties, on the Pittsburg, Butler and Har- mony Railroad.
82
CIVIC CLUB OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY
REMOVAL OF PENITENTIARY 1908 The Social Science Depart- ment, under its wide-awake Chairman, Mrs. Iams, learning that the State Board of Char- ities was discussing plans for improving the conditions at the Western Penitentiary by the erection of new buildings outside of Pittsburgh, immediately endorsed the plan, through correspondence with the State Board and recommended removal to a large site where not only vegetables and other farm products could be raised, but where tuberculous patients could be cared for apart from the other prisoners. This movement has gained many supporters, chief among whom is the progressive Warden of the institution, Mr. John Francies, and bids fair to result in the enabling legislation during the present session.
PURE MILK In May, 1908, one of the open meetings 1908 of the Educational Department was devoted solely to the Milk Commission and its efforts to supply pure milk to the people of Pittsburgh. In order to make more forceful the value of encouraging this movement, which the Civic Club most heartily endorsed, it co-operated by calling the attention of the members to its importance through in- teresting addresses by members of the Commission with illustrated charts upon the subject.
CIVIC EXHIBIT The Civic Club was one of the 1908 hosts for the annual joint conven- tion of the National Municipal League and American Civic Association which was held November 16, 1908 in the Chamber of Commerce and Trinity Chapel. The Club was also represented in the civic exhibit held at Carnegie Institute from the above
83
CIVIC CLUB OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY
date to December 31st, 1908. The reports of investiga- tions of certain living conditions in the city formed the nucleus around which the various civic and altruistic agencies of the city hung exhibits showing the results of their efforts and labor for civic betterment.
CONSERVATION In April, 1908, resolutions were 1908 sent by the Civic Club to Theo- dore Roosevelt, then President of the United States, expressing its gratification because of his action in calling a conference of the governors of all the States, with their advisors, the Senators and Repre- sentatives in Congress, as well as members of national organizations interested in the present and future de- velopment of this country, to consider the "Conserva- tion of our Natural Resources" and ultimately to secure improved State and Federal legislation to provide for the future commercial and industrial welfare of the nation.
FREE BRIDGES As one of the many civic bodies 1908 interested, the Civic Club sent rep- resentatives who appeared before Councils in October, 1908, advocating the freeing of the bridges as soon as practicable.
CAMP SCHOOL. The active interest of the Civic 1908 Club in educational work among foreigners had its beginning in April, 1908, when the Society for Italian Immigrants of New York requested the Civic Club and the Twentieth Century Club to undertake the supervision of the camp school for Italian laborers located at the filtration plant
84
CIVIC CLUB OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY
in Aspinwall. This school had been established by Miss Sara Moore, the Society's superintendent of camp schools. Committees from the Civic Club, with Mrs. E. Vermorcken, Chairman, and from the Twentieth Cen- tury Club, Mrs. A. M. Imbrie, Chairman, were appointed and under their direction the work was continued until the camp was disbanded upon completion of the filtra- tion plant. The school building was then moved to Am- bridge, Pa., where the Society for Italian Immigrants has established another school for adult foreigners.
EDUCATIONAL WORK AMONG FOREIGNERS 1909 As a result of the interest aroused in the welfare and education of our foreign population through the work in the camp school, a Committee on Work among Foreigners with Miss Martha E. Kelly, Chairman, was appointed in the fall of 1909 in the Educational Depart- ment of the Civic Club, with the idea of ultimately or- ganizing civic clubs among foreigners. Classes were formed and instruction in English and civics given. In two rooms of the Soho Bath-house successful night classes were held, beginning March 8, 1910, on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, under the direction of Miss Mary Breeze, Miss St. Peter, Miss Mary Wilson, Miss Susan Maple, Miss Belle McMillan and two or three assistants. Several large open meetings were held, a feature of these being an address in a foreign tongue (according to the nationality of the audience), and stereopticon views of some of the scenic wonders of the United States.
In May, 1910, this committee of the Educational De- partment called a conference of representatives of or- ganizations now engaged in civic and educational work among foreigners in Pittsburgh. The purpose of the con- ference was simply to bring the workers together for
85
CIVIC CLUB OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY
the mutual benefit to be derived from an exchange of ideas and a discussion of methods. Addresses were made dealing with the work done by the Church, the Y. M. C. A., the public schools and the Carnegie Library. The necessity for co-operation among existing agencies was so strongly felt that it was decided to make the confer- ence an annual event.
Immediately following this conference a number of prominent Italians, under the leadership of Rev. Salva- tore Musso, held a meeting June twenty-ninth, 1910, at which they appointed a committee to co-operate with the Civic Club in a plan which should directly result in the civic betterment of their own people in this community.
In the fall of 1910, following a summer vacation, the evening classes for foreigners were again started in the Soho Bath-house every Tuesday and Thursday evening. At the same time the committee was extending its work by making arrangements for opening other classes in the Ralston School and Lawrenceville district. In pur- suance of the policy adopted the year before, entertain- ments have been arranged for every month during the season.
OPEN-AIR In February, 1909, through the efforts of
SCHOOL the Tuberculosis Committee of the Civic
1909 Club, an open-air school was provided on one of the porches of the Tuberculosis Hospital and was equipped with desks and books. The salary of a teacher was assumed and continued until September, 1910. The money for this undertaking was raised by enthusiastic and energetic members of the committee, including Miss Katherine Eichleay, Miss Mary Gleim, Mrs. S. A. Pickering and Mrs. Paul Sturte- vant, with two generous contributions from the Women's Southern Society.
The Hospital supplied the sleeping bags and the three meals a day to the pupils, whose number varied
86
CIVIC CLUB OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY
from 12 to 15. These children had four hours of study and two hours of rest and gained in weight on an aver- age of 51/2 pounds. At the same time the attention of the public was drawn to the advantages accruing from this method of treating backward school children in other cities and interest was solicited toward the demand for it in Pittsburgh.
The statistics, so far as the work has gone, show that there are probably enough children afflicted with tuberculosis in our city to fill such an open-air school in each ward. It is the aim of the committee to see that such schools are established wherever needed. An open meeting was held in Carnegie Hall in January, 1910, arranged by Dr. W. C. White, Chairman, Dr. E. B. McCready and Dr. T. W. Grayson, the latter giving an illustrated lecture upon what has been done not only for the tuberculous but aenemic and backward children in schools of other cities. Dr. Grayson has appeared before the Principals and Teachers Associations of Pittsburgh and Allegheny, and found much interest and willingness to co-operate on the part of those who know, by their contact with the children committed to their charge, what advantages there would be in the provision for an open-air depart- ment in each public school building.
The committee has divided the work among sub- committees under the headings of literature, lectures and publicity. A public campaign has been begun by sending the most recent and instructive literature to the members of the school boards, principals and all those who may directly be interested in this up-to-date and improved method of taking care of the physically and mentally deficient pupil.
87
CIVIC CLUB OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY
LECTURE COURSE 1909 Beginning with the fall of 1909 and continuing into the Spring of 1910 a course of six lectures was held under the joint auspices of seven organizations in the Allied Boards of Trade. The Civic Club acted as host upon one of these occasions and through its Committee, Mr. William P. Field, Mr. Charles B. Fer- nald, and Mr. Malcolm McGiffin assisted in arranging an interesting program of civic lectures and debates.
OPEN MEETINGS In addition to the annual Meet- 1909 ing of the Civic Club, which is open to the Club members and their friends, there were held in 1909 two open meetings, one in February and one in June to discuss the general work of the Club.
STATE LEGISLATION The year 1909, being what 1909 might be called for the lack of a better term, a legisla- tive year, the chief activities of the Civic Club centered about proposed legislation along a number of lines in which it was interested. The measures that seemed all- important at this time were the Bills drafted in the Civic Club, providing for an industrial and training school for boys, which passed; and another Bill introduced through the Committee on Camp Schools asking for an appropriation for night schools for foreigners, with which to cover the provi- sions of the Bill passed in 1907, which did not pass; the School Code, in which was incorporated the provi- sion for medical inspection in schools as recommended by the Committee on Medical Inspection of the Civic Club, and the Child Labor Bills, Consumers League
88
CIVIC CLUB OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY
Bills, The Anti-Expectoration, and Adult Probation Bills, which were endorsed and advocated by personal interviews and correspondence.
FEDERAL LEGISLATION In addition to the State 1909
Legislation, petitions were sent to Congress advocating the creation of a Federal Children's Bureau ; renewed efforts were also made urging the passage of laws for the protection of Niagara, and for the passage of the Appalachian and White Mountain Reserve Bill. This last measure has been tossed from pillar to post until it has at last been unanimously agreed by the House and Senate to vote upon it the 15th of February, 1911. As this goes to press the Bill has become a law.
ROOMS OF DETENTION Perhaps the most im- 1910
portant direct accom- plishment of the Club during the year 1910 has been the securing of a proper enforcement of the Juvenile Court Law in its provision as to rooms of detention for children under sixteen who are in custody and awaiting hearing or placement.
Although the Juvenile Court Act, passed in 1903, specifically states that "No child, pending a hearing un- der the provisions of this act, shall be held in confine- ment in any county or other jail or police station, or in any institution to which adult convicts are sentenced", the Juvenile Court Committee deemed it inexpedient to delay the organization of the Court until suitable rooms of detention could be provided, and consented to what was expected to be a very temporary waiver of this proviso. However, seven years were permitted. to
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.