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The Children's Champion: Grace Abbott of Nebraska · Nebraska History Podcast

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The following episode features a historic article from the
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Nebraska History magazine. This article may reflect the
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language and attitudes of its time and while it offers
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valuable insight into the past, may contend expressions or
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viewpoints that are outdated or offensive by today's standards.
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Any outdated terms do not reflect the current views or
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perspectives of the Nebraska State Historical Society.
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Welcome to the Nebraska History podcast.
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I'm your host, Chris Goforth. Each episode we explore articles
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written and published in Nebraska History Magazine.
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Grace Abbott was a reformer who fought to end child labor,
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battle for immigration rights and helped architect the Social
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Security Act. In today's episode, we learn
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more about the Nebraskan who became the champion of so many
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through the 1975 Nebraska History Magazine article Grace
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Abbott of Nebraska written by Leela B Costin quote.
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An exemplary public servant, one of the best half dozen in the
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land. End Quote.
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That's how Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter described
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Grace Abbott, and he added, Quote.
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To have known her was to have experienced an exquisite fusion
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of ability, resourcefulness, compassion and devotion to the
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underprivileged, the highest administrative skill, and a gay
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and wise indifference to all that is evanescent in affairs.
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End Quote. When she died in 1939 at the age
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of 60, newspapers throughout the country catalogued the long list
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of her outstanding accomplishments and the honors
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which had come to her, a Nebraska newspaper wrote, Quote.
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Her social work style must have been of a radiant kind because
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so many honors unsought have come to her with persistent
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succession. End Quote.
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And a Chicago newspaper said in simple summary quote, the life
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of Grace Abbott was an unsentimental and genuinely
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effective contribution towards making the world a more livable
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planet. End Quote.
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In physical appearance, Grace Abbott had been described
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earlier like this quote. She had a fine, lofty face with
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brown eyes that are candid and warm, a wide forehead from which
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dark hair is drawn back smoothly, a look of facing with
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clear, swift directness whatever life has to bring in a manner
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that is unselfconscious, frank, eager.
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She has always been a woman to whom men talk as easily as women
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do. Her breezy Nebraska manner
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freshens the stagnant Washington atmosphere and blows mental dust
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out of the corners in a way somewhat terrifying to timid
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bureaucrats. End Quote.
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Since then, others have used the terms like these to describe
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her. A trained, rational and incisive
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mind. Eminently practical, yet
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creative and fearless. Forthright, vigorous, decisive,
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exciting to work with, possessing A delightful and
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quick wit. A champion of children, untiring
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in her efforts to reduce infant and maternal mortality and
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prevent exploitation of children in labor situations.
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A pioneer for Social Security legislation, Although her
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pursuit of learning and accomplishment for mankind took
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her from Nebraska to Chicago to Washington, DC, to all states of
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the Union, even to capitals of Europe and the seat of the
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League of Nations in Geneva, she always remained Grace Abbott of
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Nebraska. The experiences of her pioneer
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childhood were closely allied to the characteristics which
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enabled her to contribute soul fully and ably to the public
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life of her times. Grace Abbott's sister Edith
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wrote about their early experiences.
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Quote. Grace and I always agreed that
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our most cherished memories were those of our Prairie childhood.
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We were born in one of the oldest Nebraska towns, Grand
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Island, not far from the once famous Overland Trail, and this
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western town and state were always home.
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The old frontier, of course, completely vanished with our
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childhood, vanished like the beautiful herd of antelope that
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my father used to see from the door of his first law office,
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antelope grazing on the Buffalo grasses of the plains.
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But our memories of those early days always remained very clear.
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End Quote. And Grace Abbott had much to
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remember. Each of her parents had an
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unusual character and was a strong influence upon her
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development. Her mother, Elizabeth Gardner
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Griffin Abbott, born in 1844, came from the substantial Quaker
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family who left the Genesee Valley in New York and bought
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farms in and around to Cobb County, Illinois.
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Lizzie, as she was usually called, along with her only
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brother and her widowed mother, spent her childhood in a log
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house with a quote. Large open fire in a large room
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just for weaving. End Quote.
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The Griffin families and their Gardner relatives in Illinois
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were abolitionists and worked for the Underground Railroad in
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the next generation. The Abbott children were to
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listen avidly to their mother recount her early memories of
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the heavy bakings before a wagon suddenly dashed into the yard,
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and how everything disappeared as the wagon dashed out again,
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and how her mother and the gardeners were all excited.
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Lizzie became an ardent abolitionist herself, wearing
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black to school on the day John Brown was hanging because,
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quote, her Gardner relatives believed in some expression of
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the public sorrow. End Quote.
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Elizabeth Griffin Abbott was an early advocate of women's
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rights. As a child of eight, she
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received from her uncle, Alan Gardner, a copy of the
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Declaration of Principles presented by Elizabeth Cady
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Stanton at the Seneca Falls Convention.
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The gift carried the condition that she learned to recite the
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speech, which she struggled to do.
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Later, as part of their courtship and in an effort to
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understand and mold their future relationship, she and offman
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Ally Abbott sent back and forth between Grand Island and West
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Liberty, IA, where Lizzie was principal of the high school, a
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copy of John Stuart Mill's The Subjugation of Women, in which
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each made marginal notes for the other to respond to.
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Elizabeth was an 1868 graduate from the Rockford, IL Female
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Seminary, earlier by 13 years than Jane Addams, whose protege
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Grace Abbott was to become. This college, had a noted
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principal, Anna P Sill, who attempted to pattern her school
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after Mount Holyoke. It was an intellectually
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stimulating environment with much debate, except that Miss
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Sill rather thought that religion was not subject to
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argument or dissent. School practices included a
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prayer meeting led by Miss Sill, which all were expected to
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attend. At some point in the service,
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Miss Sill would ask that any girl leave the room if she did
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not believe the religious views presented.
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So over and over again, Lizzie Griffin, clinging to her Quaker
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heritage, would rise and walk slowly out of the room, usually
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alone. Her graduation theme was
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entitled Iconoclasts, and according to Miss Sill, it was
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quote an interesting paper concerned with reformers
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possessed of progressive ideas. End Quote.
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In Nebraska, Lizzie Abbott worked diligently for women's
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suffrage. When the suffrage amendment was
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lost not to be voted on in Nebraska for another 30 years,
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she persuaded the suffrage group in Grand Island to use its
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modest balance in money to found the Grand Island Public Library.
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Love of literature and ideas and a search for truth were part of
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her legacy to her children. She had known sadness in her
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childhood, with the death of her father before she was born, the
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loss of her only brother, killed in the Civil War, and later in
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her marriage with the grim trials and disappointments of
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the Depression that followed the Panic of 1893.
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Her letters to Grace show her to have been a loving wife and
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mother, happy with personal attentions, warm and considerate
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in her relationships to others, possessed of a quiet dictity,
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interested in and determined to educate her daughters as well as
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her sons. Grace Abbott's father was a
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forceful influence on her life. Othman Ally Abbott was a
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forthright man with vigorous opinions but tolerant of the
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views of others. Tall and strong, physically
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stern yet kind, he was the essence of responsibility
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towards his family, his neighbors and townspeople, and
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the citizens of his developing state.
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He came by covered wagon to Grand Island in 1867, began the
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practice of law and remained there all his life.
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His recollections of a pioneer lawyer provided an enthralling
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account of his early life, his Civil War experiences, and his
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interest in and contributions to Nebraska, which he served as the
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first Lieutenant governor. His daughter Edith said after
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his death, quote, father never lost his belief in Western
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promise and Western development. End Quote.
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Othman Abbott was descended from a New England Puritan family.
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Although born in Canada in 1842 with his parents and uncles, he
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left Canada in about 1847, probably because the Canadian
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government sought an oath of allegiance from them.
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Although they were still American citizens, their
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destination was the Midwest, where they became pioneer
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farmers in Wisconsin and Illinois.
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Othman's father purchased a farm in DeKalb County, Illinois,
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where Hoffman and his brothers attended school in a log
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building. Spelling schools, sleigh rides,
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and debating societies were winter diversions.
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Favorite debating subjects were the questions appearing in the
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Lincoln Douglas debates, arguments about squatter
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sovereignty and the homestead laws, as well as issues of
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slavery. To hear Wendell Phillips Hoffman
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walked 10 miles through almost impassable muddy roads and never
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forgot it as a thrilling experience.
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He had an inquiring mind, a capacity for exact observations,
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and a love of learning. Once, when his father made a
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trip back to Canada to collect payment on their old home,
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Hoffman was asked what kind of gift he would like upon his
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father's return. His choice was a book on
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astronomy. Later in Nebraska, his children
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formed a lasting memory of his appraisal of the evening sky for
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signs of the weather to come, and his careful explanations to
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them of the vastness of the heavens and the constellations
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formed by the stars. With the coming of the Civil
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War, Othman Abbott, then 18, enlisted in the Ninth Illinois
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Volunteer Calvary and was a first Lieutenant at its end.
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His convictions were strong about the abolition of slavery
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and the preservation of the Union of states.
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A vivid part of Grace's childhood was the hearing of
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never ending stories about Lincoln and the Sunday following
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the attack on Fort Sumter with its excitement in Illinois.
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Flags were flown on all the churches, displayed in pulpits,
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and everyone tried to wear small flags to show loyalty to the
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Union. Grace, her sister and brothers
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learned to sing the campaign songs of the election of 1860
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and to recite Civil War poems. When Hoffman's friends, usually
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Civil War veterans, came to Grand Island home to visit,
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there were frequent arguments around the table about campaign
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strategies to which the Abbott children listened.
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The County Courthouse and her father's law practice were
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significant influences upon Grace's developing personality
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and ambition. She and Edith would accept their
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father's invitation to come enjoy the tense drama of an
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important legal case. When there was some part of the
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hearings he thought they might understand, particularly one
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with grand oratorial flourishes, he would look up and wave after
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they had entered the courtroom gallery and other lawyers
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sometimes waved or spoke to the little Abbott girls.
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It was exciting and Grace would say she was sure she wanted to
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be a lawyer long afterward, Edith wrote.
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Quote. If she had not been a woman,
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Grace would have been a very great lawyer.
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End Quote. They saw their father as a
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wonderful lawyer whom they watched with admiration as they
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waited for the triumphant challenging questions.
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He was happy when winning a case Quote, but Father enjoyed
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everything. In those days he was helping to
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build a state in the Prairie wilderness, and he used to say
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that his imagination had been fired by the vast expanse of the
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surrounding Prairie country. End Quote.
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The Abbott children lived the busy, varied life which a small
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Prairie town provided. Offman, Audie Junior was the
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oldest born in 1874. He was admitted to the bar and
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served for an extended period as District Court reporter and as
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mayor of Grand Island. Edith was two years younger and
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was to become famous as a scholar, a social investigator
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as she preferred to be called, and as a theorist and Dean in
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higher education for social work.
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Her devotion to Grace, born two years later than she was
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lifelong. They were always very close in
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their personal lives and in their work.
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Their personalities and work styles were contrasting and
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highly complimentary. Arthur, the youngest, was born
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in 1880. He became a law graduate from
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the University of Chicago and practiced in Grand Island for
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most of his adult life. In their childhood, Edith
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recalled quote, there was always infinite variety with Grace as a
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companion. End Quote.
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In summer they sometimes visited their uncle, Marcus Riley Abbott
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at his farm near Wood River NE Grace learned to drive the
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phaeton behind the family horse at a younger age and later, like
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her brothers, rode the young horses with courage and skill.
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All the Abbott children were encouraged by their parents to
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try to hold their own in a controversy.
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Argumentativeness was not seen necessarily as an undesirable
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characteristic. It was Grace who was most adept
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at finding extraordinary and convincing reasons for not doing
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what she didn't want to do as a child.
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She had a disarming frankness quote.
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She was different and her teachers were a little
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bewildered by her honest work and her sudden gay remarks that
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led to a harmless but disconcerting excitement.
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End Quote. She was determined about many
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matters, including the scratchy starch dresses and sun bonnets
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of summer wear. When her Quaker grandmother had
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neatly tied the sun bonnet in a bow under Grace's chin, she
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would promptly push it back and pull the knot until it was
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loose, and her manner of doing so caused her grandmother to
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say, quote, Ah Grace, thee is a little rebel.
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End Quote. Church suppers and social
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picnics, medicine shows, German lessons, a circus, even revival
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meetings of fundamental sectarian groups in Grand
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Island. All these Grace entered into
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with zest. Edith wrote quote.
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Her resources were endless and always unexpected.
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She was not able to run faster or farther than my brothers,
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although she often challenged them so vigorously that she made
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us all expect to see her come out first.
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But she always knew how to find the thickest cattails and the
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longest bull rushes in the old Prairie Slough.
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She knew where the violets were earliest, largest and thickest
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in the spring, where the Prairie flowers could be found in the
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endless monotony of the Buffalo grasses in the summer, and where
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the wild grapes grew in a hidden thicket near the river.
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She was more amusing than the rest of us, full of undreamed of
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possibilities and wonderful stories.
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End Quote. But all this was to change.
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During the panic of the 1890s, in the days of poverty and
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distress in Nebraska, Othman Abbott suffered serious
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financial losses. Edith had been graduated with
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honors from Omaha's Brownell Hall in 1893 and at 16 began
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teaching in the Grand Island High School.
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It was hard and demanding work. Audie left the University of
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Nebraska, found work in a grocery store and began to read
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law with his father. Grace, not able to go to
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Brownell Hall as planned, finished high school in Grand
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Island and enrolled in the new small college there.
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Arthur found summer work in the beet fields after college
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graduation at age 19, Grace took her first teaching position in
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the fall of 1898 in the Broken Bow High School.
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She was determined to succeed and entered into the life of the
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small town, then about 1200 persons.
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She taught seven classes a day, plain and solid geometry,
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algebra, Caesar, German rhetoric, and English
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literature. But in the spring, she
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contracted a serious case of typhoid fever.
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She was cared for in Broken Bow in a makeshift hospital, and
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when she was well enough to leave, her father and mother
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took her home for a long convalescence. 35 years later,
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when she was carrying out one of her duties as chief of the
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United States Children's Bureau, speaking on a weekly radio
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program having to do with the work of the Bureau, she received
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a letter from a former school teacher colleague in Broken Bow.
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Grace replied to her quote. Of course I remember you and the
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old days in Broken Bow. I can never forget it, for it
17:49
was my first job and my first work away from home and I felt
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when I came down with typhoid fever that spring that I had
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failed completely and utterly. End Quote.
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Offman and Lizzie Abbott's four adult children helped each other
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financially when they could and tried to save money to help
18:08
their parents or to use for more education.
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In the fall of 1899, Grace was well enough to resume work.
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Edith took her own small savings and went to the University of
18:20
Nebraska to finish a degree she had begun work on in summer
18:23
sessions. Grace replaced her in the Grand
18:26
Island High School and taught there for eight years.
18:29
Why did she finally leave Nebraska when it meant so much
18:32
to her 23 years later, after having attained recognition
18:36
nationally and internationally and while she was being widely
18:40
supported for appointment as the first woman in a president's
18:44
cabinet? She explained, quote, I was
18:46
always happy in Nebraska, but there isn't much opportunity for
18:50
a girl in a small city, and it seemed inevitable that I leave.
18:54
A boy can come home from college, begin the practice of
18:57
his profession, and advance rapidly in his hometown.
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But when a girl comes back, what can she do?
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She can teach, but after she's done that, she finds that she
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has reached the top and that there's nothing more for her.
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End Quote. Much more awaited Grace Abbott
19:14
when she left for the University of Chicago in the fall of 19 O 7
19:18
to study law and political science.
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In less than a year she had been offered and had accepted an
19:25
opportunity to live at Hull House and direct a newly formed
19:29
agency, the Immigrants Protective League.
19:32
European immigration was by then more than 1,000,000 persons per
19:37
year, and large numbers of them poured into Chicago and its West
19:41
side, where their problems became evident.
19:43
To Jane Addams and the whole House residence quote in 19 O 8.
19:48
Hull House and the Old West Side were still a part of a vast city
19:52
wilderness. The streets were atrocious,
19:54
badly paved or not paved, rarely cleaned or never cleaned.
19:58
There were horses everywhere and filthy, rotting stables and
20:02
alleys. The tenements, many of them
20:04
wooden shacks that have been built on the Prairie before the
20:07
Great Fire, were beyond description, and there were
20:10
sweatshops and home finishings on every side of us as we came
20:14
or went. Great foreign colonies had been
20:17
established where English was seldom heard.
20:20
We were in the midst of an Italian neighborhood adjoining a
20:23
large Greek colony. There was a large Bulgarian
20:26
colony along Halsted St. to the north and the old ghetto to the
20:30
South. As picturesque as it was in
20:33
Sanitary. End Quote.
20:36
But Grace loved vigorous activity, personal challenge,
20:39
and colorful differences among people and places.
20:43
Her capacity for leadership in the social welfare movement and
20:46
her extraordinary ability to organize and administer began
20:51
rapidly to take form. Hull House was an exciting and
20:54
intellectually stimulating place to live.
20:57
There were then about 25 women and 12 men, residents of varying
21:01
professions and interest. There were music teachers, art
21:05
teachers, club leaders, social workers, lawyers, newspaper
21:08
reporters, doctors, and a few successful businessmen who
21:12
wanted to work with a social reform group.
21:14
Quote. Our political opinions varied
21:17
widely and our arguments not infrequently began at the
21:20
breakfast table and during the day.
21:22
The various participants in the current controversy seem to have
21:26
sharpened their weapons and prepared for the new arguments
21:29
that were sure to be heard at the dinner table.
21:31
End Quote Grace, who is known to thrive on controversy, wrote
21:35
happily to her parents. Quote, This is the place to get
21:39
radical opinions. End Quote.
21:42
Some of the most remarkable women of the century, who were
21:45
challenging the stereotype of women, were interested in her
21:48
and began to influence her. Not only Jane Addams, but Julia
21:52
Lathrop, Florence Kelly, Sophanisba, P Breckenridge, Hull
21:57
House became, in effect, her training ground for future
22:00
monumental accomplishments in professional government
22:03
administration. Each day, Grace Abbott directed
22:06
the activities of the Immigrants Protective League with support
22:10
from board members like Judge Julian W Mack, Professors Ernest
22:13
Frund, George H Mead and Miss Breckenridge, and businessman,
22:17
financier, philanthropist Julius Rosenwald.
22:20
The young director soon uncovered a whole series of
22:23
situations to challenge the pioneer field of public welfare
22:27
administration. There were problems among the
22:30
new immigrants which required immediate attention,
22:33
accommodations for those temporarily stranded, help to
22:37
men whose families were attempting to join them and have
22:39
been detained, often arbitrarily, at Ellis Island.
22:42
Children who needed to be enrolled in school and parents
22:45
who needed explanation and support in scene that they
22:49
attended. Translation of papers which
22:51
immigrants were being urged to sign.
22:54
Help in securing money due them from steamship companies and
22:58
exploitative employment agencies.
23:01
There were problems of poverty, public health, adult education
23:05
and justice in the courts. Considerable attention was given
23:08
to the quote lost immigrant girl who was expected but never
23:12
arrived in Chicago. There were visits and help for
23:15
the single unaccompanied girls without relatives or other
23:18
reliable friends in the bewildering city.
23:21
The professional approach which Grace Abbott evolved was a
23:24
dynamic and farsighted means of linking 2 facts of social work
23:29
currently termed advocacy and labeled innovative.
23:32
The two components were family centered casework and Protective
23:36
Services for individuals and families in trouble and use of
23:40
the courts, government's regulatory authority and other
23:43
influences for social action to change conditions creating the
23:47
problems the immigrant received prompt individual help to
23:51
alleviate stresses in doing so. Data were collected about the
23:55
immigrants experiences throughout the long journey, how
23:58
much was being paid for board, the occupation, wages, hours and
24:03
other conditions of work. The remaining Link and
24:05
Obligation to Home in the Native Country Lecture series were set
24:09
up to give new immigrants the kind of information they most
24:13
needed in their new environment. Studies were published and
24:16
solutions sought to the larger problems which investigation had
24:20
uncovered. Attention was focused on the
24:22
need for some guarantee to the immigrant of safe arrival in
24:26
Chicago, even though conditions had been improved by federal
24:30
immigration authorities at the port of arrival.
24:33
From the time they were placed on trains, hopefully to their
24:36
desired destination, immigrants were without guidance or
24:40
supervision. As a result of the language
24:43
barrier, the confusion of the journey and the railroad station
24:46
upon arrival, and their vulnerability to exploitation by
24:50
unscrupulous persons, many fail to reach their friends or
24:53
relatives. Grace Abbott secured the
24:56
cooperation of the Chicago and Western Indiana Railroad who
25:00
furnished A2 story building and turned over to the League the
25:04
supervision and control of immigrant arrivals.
25:07
The League's purpose was, quote, to give the help which the very
25:11
large number arriving at the station so badly needed, but
25:14
also to show that official supervision was necessary and
25:19
practical. End Quote.
25:21
Protective legislation at the federal level was sought to
25:24
guarantee a safe arrival, and it was secured in large part as a
25:28
result of League efforts and Grace Abbott's convincing
25:32
testimony to Charles Nagle, the Secretary of Commerce and Labor
25:35
under President William Howard Taft's administration.
25:39
Grace had become a liberal immigrationist.
25:42
She held respect for and confidence in the new immigrant.
25:47
In January 1912, she made a hurried and unexpected trip to
25:51
Washington. President Taft was holding a
25:54
public hearing on legislation for a quote.
25:56
Literacy test, End Quote. As a basis for admission of
26:00
immigrants, as Edith wrote to her mother quote, no one goes to
26:04
speak for the immigrants except representatives of Polish and
26:08
Jewish societies and all of the patriotic organizations like the
26:13
Sons and Daughters of the Revolution, Mayflower
26:15
descendants all go to speak against immigration.
26:18
So it means a great deal to have someone like Grace, who is an
26:21
older American than most of them, there to speak on the
26:25
other side. This time, Mr. Oswald Garrison,
26:28
Villiard of New York, the grandson of the great William
26:32
Lloyd Garrison, also went on. So Grace had at least one good
26:36
supporter besides the foreigners themselves.
26:39
End Quote. The literacy test passed by
26:42
Congress was vetoed by President Taft, who later, quote, told our
26:46
friend Mr. Rosenwald that it was Grace Abbott's statement at a
26:50
hearing that he had held that persuaded him to veto the
26:54
literacy restriction. End Quote.
26:57
Within the limits of this article, mention only can be
27:00
made of Grace Abbott's four month leave of absence from the
27:03
League in 1912 to go at her own expense to Europe to study the
27:07
homes and culture of Croatia, Slavonia and Galatia, original
27:12
homes of many immigrants she called upon to help.
27:16
She was also on leave in 19131914 to serve as secretary
27:21
to a special immigration Commission appointed by the
27:23
Massachusetts Legislature to investigate the status of the
27:27
immigrant in Massachusetts. In six months she had her report
27:31
completed and received this commendation from one of the
27:35
members of the Commission. Quote she planned and carried
27:39
through a comprehensive investigation of conditions and
27:42
wrote a report of which it was said on State Street that it was
27:47
the ablest state paper ever issued in the Commonwealth.
27:51
The program proposed covered over 50 recommendations in the
27:54
fields of education, medicine, housing, protection of savings,
27:59
justice and civil rights, naturalization and distribution
28:03
of the influx of newcomers of whom the state was then
28:06
receiving well over 100,000 a year.
28:09
End Quote. Her clear and analytical
28:12
thinking and ability to look at individuals and groups free of
28:15
stereotypes had stood her in the good stead.
28:19
Other activities concerning public questions filled Grace
28:22
Abbott's Whole House years. Like others at Whole House, she
28:26
was an enthusiastic supporter of the Progressive Party and
28:30
Theodore Roosevelt's candidacy for president in 1912.
28:33
She wrote to her mother, quote, Things are very busy these days.
28:37
All the progressives are here and here means at the Whole
28:41
House. End Quote.
28:42
She gave suffrage speeches, lobbied in the state capitol for
28:45
reform legislation, regulation of private employment agencies,
28:49
improvement of public employment offices, protective regulation
28:53
of the hours and conditions of female employment.
28:56
She was a member of the Women's Trade Union League and joined in
29:00
the struggle of a group of oppressed workers in a growing
29:03
and successful industry. Sydney Hillman was to recall 30
29:07
years later that in the garment workers strike of 1910, quote,
29:11
Grace Abbott joined our picket line, helped to collect funds
29:14
for food and shelter, spoke at our meetings, presented our case
29:18
to the public, and appealed to the city administration to
29:21
arbitrate the strike. Grace Abbott had recognized the
29:24
basic issues of the struggle and realized the need for the
29:27
introduction of orderly industrial relations machinery
29:31
in the clothing industry. Thus, back in 1910 and later
29:35
during the strike in 1916, Grace Abbott helped to show that labor
29:39
disputes are not private encounters between employers and
29:43
employees, but that they are of profound social and economic
29:47
import and affect the entire community.
29:50
End Quote. In 1915, Grace Abbott was one of
29:54
the American delegates to the Women's Peace Conference at The
29:57
Hague, Netherlands. The following year she organized
30:00
the Conference of Oppressed Nationalities, which met in
30:03
Washington, DC under the auspices of the American
30:07
Delegation to the Congress after the War of the International
30:10
Conference of Women for Permanent Peace.
30:12
Its purpose was to aid in formulating public opinion with
30:16
regard to the rights of submerged nationalities, and
30:19
spokesman at the conference were American representatives of the
30:22
Irish, Belgians, Serbians, Albanians, Syrians, Croatians,
30:27
Russian Jews, Lithuanians, Poles, Ukrainians, Slovaks,
30:32
Bohemians, and Finns. In April 1917, Grace Abbott was
30:37
appointed director of the Child Labor Division of the Children's
30:41
Bureau and joined Julia Lathrop in Washington, DC.
30:45
The employment of large numbers of children, particularly in the
30:48
textile mills of the South, as had been true of the mills of
30:52
the North in earlier years and of other factories and tenement
30:55
industries, had evoked national and even international
30:59
criticism. The struggle begun by reformers
31:02
in the previous century to control the exploitation of
31:05
children in industry finally resulted in the passage by
31:08
Congress of the first child labor law.
31:11
The Children's Bureau and the Department of Labor was assigned
31:14
responsibility for its administration and enforcement,
31:19
although the federal legislation was declared unconstitutional by
31:22
the United States Supreme Court a year later.
31:24
Grace Abbott made marked progress in evolving the
31:28
acceptable and effective basis for federal, state, local
31:31
administrative relations in social welfare programs, a
31:34
pattern which she was to build upon and demonstrate in a
31:38
trenchant way during the administration of the Maternity
31:41
and Infancy Act in the 1920s. Practice strategies were
31:45
essential ones which took into account the diverse
31:49
characteristics among the states, since this new kind of
31:52
protective legislation was to be enforced locally.
31:55
Selecting and organizing a field staff.
31:58
Establishing A systematic means of determining a child's legal
32:01
age for the purpose of issuing work certificates, often in
32:05
dispute since there was yet no uniform system of birth
32:08
registration. Carrying out inspections of
32:10
textile mills and other places of children's employment.
32:14
Consulting with federal, state and local officials in the
32:16
writing of administrative rules and regulations.
32:19
To all these duties, Grace Abbott applied her ability to
32:23
distinguish between important questions of principle, which
32:26
could not be compromised, and other minor questions of
32:29
administrative policy. Although federal child labor
32:33
enforcement came to an abrupt end with the Supreme Court
32:36
decision, Grace Abbott continued with the Children's Bureau for
32:39
another year to carry out further collection and
32:42
evaluation of social facts. The court decision had come at a
32:46
time when there was unusual need for the protection of children
32:50
in exploitive work situations. For over a year before the
32:53
entrance of the United States into World War One, children had
32:57
been drawn into industry to help fill contracts by American
33:00
manufacturers and belligerent nations.
33:03
The situation came more acute with America's entrance into the
33:06
war. In many states, the result was a
33:09
harmful lengthening of the working day for children and
33:12
other violations of state laws. Grace Abbott accepted an
33:16
appointment as consultant to the new War Labor Policies Board
33:20
created by President Woodrow Wilson.
33:22
The purpose of the Board was to fill the need for a scientific
33:26
agency to determine general policies in the arbitration of
33:30
contracts in war related industries.
33:33
Her knowledge and experience with problems of women and
33:35
children in industry were invaluable.
33:38
She was able to influence the Board to adopt A regulation
33:42
providing that protective standards of the invalidated
33:44
federal child labor law should be made a condition of all
33:48
federal government contracts for the rest of her life.
33:51
Grace Abbott was able to seek a legal means to give nationwide
33:55
protection to children against the cruel dimunation of their
33:59
childhood and loss of opportunity for schooling and
34:02
normal development which resulted from their premature
34:05
employment in mills, mines, factories, canneries, and on
34:09
farms. After a second federal child
34:12
labor law was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme
34:15
Court, she was forceful in securing agreement among reform
34:19
groups on the necessity for a constitutional amendment to
34:23
regulate child labor, in finding legal wording of the proposed
34:27
amendment which would satisfy different points of view, and in
34:30
rallying support for its passage by a large nonpartisan majority
34:34
of Congress. But in face of a
34:37
misrepresentation and propaganda from reactionary political and
34:41
industrial employer groups with vested interests in the defeat,
34:45
not enough states ratified the hard won amendment.
34:49
Quote. With the coming of the New Deal
34:51
in 1933, and essentially on the urging of Grace Abbott and her
34:55
successor Catherine Lenrout, prohibitions on the employment
34:59
of children in Interstate commerce were written into the
35:02
Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.
35:05
And when the courts upheld the constitutionality of the Act,
35:08
the cause was finally won. Unceasing agitation was the
35:13
price of ultimate achievement. End Quote.
35:16
The full development of Grace Abbott's uncommon abilities took
35:19
form with her appointment in 1921 to succeed Julia Lathrop as
35:23
Chief of the Children's Bureau. The law which had created the
35:27
Children's Bureau in 1912 set forth its duties as follows.
35:31
Quote, to investigate and report upon all matters pertaining to
35:35
the welfare of children and child life among all classes of
35:39
our people. And quote, it was the clear
35:42
intent of the statute to create an independent investigative or
35:45
research agency in the comprehensive field of child
35:49
welfare. Julia Lathrop, the first chief,
35:52
had earned high praise for her nonpartisan objective and
35:56
vigorous pursuit of the bureaus purpose.
35:59
She was determined to preserve in the transition to a second
36:02
chief a non political administration which had
36:05
prevailed through her tenure under President Taft and Wilson.
36:09
But in early 1921 and the new administration of President
36:13
Warren G Harding, there was an influx of Washington job seekers
36:17
and pressure to name loyal party workers to the new appointments.
36:22
Grace Abbott, the choice of Julia Lathrop, had the backing
36:26
of organized groups of progressive women, social
36:29
workers, and persons of scientific orientation
36:32
interested in child welfare. However, she had no political
36:36
party backing and in fact had no firm party identification,
36:40
although her father was, as Edith Abbott said, quote, one of
36:43
the best of the rugged individualists, and quote, Grace
36:47
had supported Theodore Roosevelt as a Progressive candidate for
36:50
president in 1912 and almost surely had voted for Woodrow
36:54
Wilson in 1916. During her professional life she
36:58
had not considered her political affiliation as a qualification
37:02
for any position to which she aspired.
37:04
Faced with this threat to the integrity of the Children's
37:07
Bureau, Miss Lathrop skillfully interpreted the situation to
37:11
persons like Florence Kelly of the National Consumers League,
37:15
Harriet Taylor Upton, Vice Chairman of the Republican
37:19
National Committee, and Julius Rosenwald, a friend of Herbert
37:22
Hoover, along with others able to command a following.
37:26
After four months of negotiation, Grace Abbott was
37:30
appointed the Chief of the Children's Bureau, with some
37:33
slight but amusing last minute competition between Senators
37:36
George Norris of Nebraska and Medeal McCormick of Illinois as
37:40
to which state had the right to claim her.
37:43
From then on, it was Grace Abbott's clearly recognized
37:47
competence and her ability to Marshall support from women's
37:50
groups on almost any issue which counted.
37:53
She was reappointed chief of the Children's Bureau by Presidents
37:56
Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, and Franklin D Roosevelt.
38:00
At one point, James Farley noted that Grace Abbott, who had been
38:04
one of the top level women in Washington under Hoover, was a
38:08
Republican quote. Although she militantly
38:11
championed a children's rights, ambitious Democrats tried to use
38:15
Miss Abbott's party affiliation as an excuse for Farley to force
38:19
her out. Eleanor Roosevelt advised Farley
38:22
to write the women who was after Doctor Abbott job, that no
38:26
change is being made in the Children's Bureau, and that Miss
38:29
Abbott has the backing of most of the organized groups of women
38:33
interested in child welfare. End Quote.
38:36
Grace Abbott served as chief of the Children's Bureau for 13
38:39
years. For her, most of these were
38:42
halcyon years. The days were crowded and
38:44
demanding, and she was happy with her grand new job.
38:47
It's arena was ideal for her talent for cutting through
38:50
distracting or distorted information and grasping the
38:54
basic issues and overlapping concerns and communicating them
38:57
to others. This might be to a congressional
39:00
committee, a newspaper reporter, a group of state and local
39:03
government officials, unfriendly textile mill owners, or women
39:07
across the country. She was never afraid of making
39:10
and acting on decisions once she had the facts.
39:13
She attracted highly competent men and women to the Children's
39:17
Bureau, probably because she tried to discover individual
39:20
capabilities and tailor them to their best use in meeting the
39:24
Bureau statutory charge. It was Grace Abbott's
39:27
responsibility to supervise the planning and direction of
39:31
numerous Social Research projects.
39:33
She insisted upon a scientific approach to fact finding, an
39:37
objective analysis of data, public reporting of the results,
39:40
and a search for social remedies to the problems which had been
39:44
documented. The array of studies completed
39:47
during her Children's Bureau years yielding impressive
39:50
evidence pertaining to the welfare of children and child
39:53
life among all classes of our people.
39:56
In one of a series of studies on child labor, the Children's
39:59
Bureau staff went to the oyster and shrimp canning communities
40:03
on the Gulf of Mexico coast, where they found children
40:06
employed as oyster shuckers and shrimp peelers.
40:09
Women and children stood all day bending to reach clusters of
40:12
oysters from cars which ran on tracks into the cannery, an open
40:16
shed. Most of the children were under
40:18
14 years of age, in some instances as young as four and
40:23
five. Lack of proper facilities and
40:26
procedures resulted in lacerated and diseased hands because of
40:30
sharp oyster shells, shrimp acid and shrimp.
40:33
Thorns and injuries were common from falls on wet, slippery
40:37
floors or from being run down by oyster carts.
40:41
Child employment and anthracite coal mines in the Shenandoah
40:44
District were also studied. The way in which children were
40:48
located for the study is representative of the thorough
40:52
person by person search used. Quote A preliminary canvas was
40:56
made of every house and apartment in the area studied
40:59
and the name and age of every child in the family together
41:02
with other identifying data were noted all together.
41:05
Schedules were secured for 3136 children.
41:10
End Quote. Young boys were found working
41:13
long hours in enveloping black dust and the constant noise of
41:17
coal running from chutes or being sorted in shakers.
41:21
Boys as young as 12 are being used in some of the most
41:23
hazardous underground work. A number of studies were made of
41:27
the relation of farm labor to child welfare and school
41:31
attendance. Detailed information on work,
41:34
schooling and other factors affecting their development was
41:37
obtained for approximately 12,000 children under 16 years
41:41
of age in 14 states. Grace Abbott made it clear.
41:45
Quote. It seems unnecessary to point
41:48
out that helping father with the chores and mother with the
41:51
dishes or doing other work which develops a sense of family
41:54
solidarity has a real training value for children is not
41:58
classified as child labor. End Quote.
42:01
The primary concern was the full time employment of the children
42:05
of migrant agricultural workers. The retardation which resulted
42:09
from their sporadic school attendance was documented.
42:12
Concern was also high about the menace to the physical and
42:16
social development of children, which stemmed from the lack of
42:19
adequate housing in the migrant camps and other environmental
42:23
threats. Grace Abbott was concerned, too,
42:26
about rural children, who are expected as a matter of course
42:29
to work hard for long hours during school days on family
42:33
farms. At the request of the Children's
42:35
Code Commission of North Dakota, the Children's Bureau made a
42:39
study of child labor and schooling in that state.
42:42
They stated Quote. The boys and girls included in
42:45
the study appeared to have done almost every variety of work
42:48
performed on the farms of North Dakota.
42:51
Many heavy and more or less hazardous farm processes
42:54
involving special physical strain, the handling of
42:57
machinery or dangerous implements, or the driving of
43:00
four horse or five horse teams were commonly performed by
43:04
children from the age of 10 years up.
43:06
Boys as young as eight years of age had worked with two share
43:10
plows drawn by four or five horses.
43:13
Boys as young as seven years of aging.
43:15
Girls as young as ten reported the driving of stackers and hay
43:19
forks, harrowing and raking hay. End Quote.
43:23
Such findings caused Grace Abbott to point out quote the
43:26
the protection of the city child from premature employment has in
43:30
large measure been secured by the votes of country legislators
43:34
who were shocked to find young children working in the mines
43:37
before furnaces, at dangerous machinery or for long hours at
43:41
monotonous indoor tasks. The advantage of farm work has
43:45
compared with factory work, do not need enumeration.
43:49
But with the improvement in rural schools by state
43:52
distributive funds and by other means, we should make sure that
43:55
the farm boys and girls are given the same opportunity to
43:58
attend school and to profit by group games and other forms of
44:02
recreation as are the city children.
44:05
End Quote. There were other important
44:07
studies as well. Children of illegitimate birth
44:10
and dependent children under the supervision of child caring
44:14
organizations were studied and important issues raised about
44:18
what children should become wards of the state.
44:21
There were studies of guardianship, custody, adoption,
44:24
and the practice of juvenile courts, followed by efforts to
44:28
help set standards for the court.
44:30
One of the most significant studies was of maternal
44:33
mortality in 15 states, which analyzed the facts in the case
44:37
of each maternal death. Another was a series of child
44:41
health studies, one of which was to identify the cause and
44:45
community means of preventing Ricketts.
44:47
In cooperation with the New Haven Department of Health, the
44:51
Ricketts study began a long personal and collegial
44:55
association between Grace Abbott and Doctor Martha E Elliott.
45:00
As the depression of the 1930s worsened, a study was made of
45:04
the transient and needy boys who rode the freights back and forth
45:07
across the country. In other studies as well, the
45:11
harmful effects of the depression upon children were
45:13
documented. For some time, Grace Abbott and
45:17
her staff had been compiling monthly relief reports collected
45:21
by mail and Telegraph from social agencies in cities of at
45:24
least 50,000 people. In 1930, at the request of
45:29
President Hoover's emergency counsel for employment, the
45:32
Children's Bureau began to furnish monthly reports to the
45:35
Council and other agencies. The Bureau of the Census had not
45:39
collected such data, and in those critical times the
45:42
Children's Bureau was the only federal agency with reports
45:46
relating to unemployment relief, the work that was expanded in
45:50
1932 because of its importance to federal, state, and local
45:54
planning for aid to the unemployed.
45:56
In 1934 alone, the Children's Bureau distributed 1,763,797 of
46:04
its various publications to government and voluntary
46:07
agencies and the general public. Almost 80,000 were the popular
46:12
and frequently revised ones on which so many mothers relied.
46:15
Prenatal care, infant care, the child from 1:00 to 6:00, and
46:20
Child Management. Congress in 1921 added to Grace
46:25
Abbott's responsibility by passing the Maternity and
46:28
Infancy Act, frequently called the Shepherd Towner Act.
46:32
A plan for such a program had been submitted by Julia Lathrop
46:36
in her annual report in 1917. Congresswoman Jeanette Rankin of
46:40
Montana first introduced it for passage in 1918.
46:44
The act provided a new form of social welfare grant in aid to
46:49
the States and gave responsibility to the chief of
46:51
the Children's Bureau for its administration and for the
46:54
research in maternal and infant care.
46:57
Problems of childbirth and care of babies were not new to Grace
47:01
Abbott. During her days with the
47:03
Immigrants Protective League in Chicago, she had been concerned
47:06
about the services of midwives, the neglect of pregnant women,
47:10
and the conditions under which women gave birth.
47:13
Early studies by the Children's Bureau had found that the United
47:16
States had unusually high rates of maternal and infant
47:19
mortality. At the time the Maternity and
47:23
Infancy Act was passed, the death rate for mothers in
47:25
childbirth was higher than the rates for most foreign
47:28
countries, which has statistics of birth and death.
47:31
The infant mortality rate was higher than the rates for five
47:34
of such foreign countries. The purpose of the new
47:37
legislation was to promote maternal and child health
47:41
programs. Among the services offered were
47:44
campaigns to secure registration of all births. 18 states still
47:48
had no birth registration in 1923.
47:50
Conferences with mothers about maternal and child care.
47:55
Distribution of supplies for mothers who were unable to go to
47:58
a hospital for the birth of their babies.
48:00
Medical and nursing care for mothers and infants at home,
48:03
particularly in remote areas. Nutrition classes, efforts to
48:08
improve services of midwives, and an increase in numbers of
48:12
public health nurses and physicians, particularly in
48:15
rural areas. The ACT provided that states
48:18
develop plans on the basis of need and provide matching funds
48:22
in order to receive grants in aid.
48:24
Conferences and advice were provided by the Children's
48:28
Bureau between 1921 and 192945 States, including Nebraska,
48:33
cooperated with the Bureau in using federal funds before
48:36
Congress failed to renew the ACT.
48:39
In spite of widespread support for maternity and infancy
48:42
programs among women's groups and evidence of successful
48:45
implementation in the states, some opposition to the passage
48:48
of the act and to its renewal had persisted.
48:52
Briefly stated, opposition came from groups such as these, the
48:56
American Medical Association, which saw it as a wedge which
48:59
might lead to the state medicine model.
49:03
Medical cultists who opposed any public health program, even
49:06
vaccination and quarantine states.
49:09
Rightists who overlooked federal grants for highways, soil
49:13
surveys, forest fire prevention, county extension agents, control
49:16
of venereal disease and other causes.
49:19
Offshoots of anti suffrage organizations such as Women
49:22
Patriots and organizations like the Sentinels of the Republic
49:26
who viewed the entire Maternity and Infancy Act as a communist
49:30
ploy by feminists intent upon international control of
49:33
children. This latter opposition, often
49:36
scurrilous, frequently singled out Grace Abbott for personal
49:40
attack. And then there was Senator James
49:43
Reed of Missouri, who, in an effort to destroy the
49:45
legislation, used ridicule in harsh statements about, quote,
49:49
spinsters who wanted to control maternity and teach mothers how
49:53
to rear babies. End Quote.
49:55
Significant, though more subtle, opposition came from President
49:59
Hoover, who disappointed countless women who has
50:02
supported his election as a friend of children.
50:05
Although he made perfunctory statements for the axe renewal
50:08
in 1929, he did little or nothing to press for its
50:12
passage. He was not disinterested in the
50:15
program but wanted to follow the plan of Ray Lyman Wilbur, his
50:19
Secretary of the Interior and a personal friend.
50:22
Wilbur, a physician, sought to have the administration of the
50:25
Maternity and Infancy program and other health work of the
50:29
Children's Bureau transferred to the Public Health Service, a
50:32
move that had greater significance than the mere
50:35
administrative transfer of functions.
50:37
His plan produced intense controversy which dominated the
50:41
1930 White House Conference on Child Health and Protection.
50:46
Grace Abbott was at the center of the drama, and with immense
50:49
courage and the support of a large majority of the delegates,
50:53
she forestalled efforts to transfer the Children's Bureau
50:56
health functions and maintained its independence.
51:00
For Grace Abbott, the failure of Congress to renew the Shepherd
51:03
Towner Act was a deep disappointment.
51:06
But she never lost sight of the needs of mothers and their
51:09
children, nor surrendered her efforts to secure the basic
51:12
protections of them which the ACT had provided.
51:15
With the passage of the Social Security Act in 1935, that goal
51:19
was reached, and Grace Abbott was largely responsible.
51:23
In 1934, President Roosevelt created a Committee on Economic
51:27
Security to develop a workable Social Security program.
51:31
Edwin E Witty, a University Wisconsin economist and expert
51:35
in the field of social insurance, was appointed
51:38
executive director of the committee.
51:40
Grace Abbott was appointed to serve on its Advisory Council.
51:44
Witty summed up Grace Abbott's contribution to the writing and
51:48
passage of the Social Security Act as follows.
51:50
Quote I regarded Miss Grace Abbott as one of the most useful
51:54
of the Americans of the present generation.
51:57
She, above everyone else, was responsible for the child
52:01
welfare provisions which occur in the Social Security Act.
52:04
Miss Abbott never let me forget that we must do something for
52:08
the children to have even a reasonably adequate Social
52:11
Security bill. I recall vividly that many of
52:14
the people in our technical committee who had most to do
52:17
with the formulation of the Social Security program said
52:21
that such matters as infant and maternity services cripple
52:24
children's services, and even dependent children's services
52:28
had nothing to do with social insurance.
52:31
As it turned out, the child welfare provisions brought to
52:34
the bill most valuable support, and they turned out to be among
52:37
the most popular provisions of the measure.
52:40
I also recall what Miss Abbott did for Social Security at the
52:44
most crucial stage of its consideration in Congress.
52:47
The story has never been told how very near the committee Ways
52:51
and Means was to ditching the entire bill.
52:54
Miss Abbott realized how very critical the situation had
52:58
become. She was instrumental in bringing
53:01
together a number of people genuinely interested in getting
53:04
the Social Security bill through Congress.
53:06
In that session she took the lead in organizing a small
53:09
committee to contact leaders of public opinion in all walks of
53:13
life who joined in a statement presented to Congress urging
53:17
action upon the pending Social Security bill and expressing the
53:20
idea that it was necessary to make a start if Social Security
53:25
were to ever be improved. I am satisfied that the
53:28
Congressional session of 1935 was the last for several years
53:32
in which the Social Security Act could have been passed, and I
53:36
give Miss Abbott much of the credit for getting this measure
53:39
through Congress when it appeared to be lost.
53:43
Miss Abbott was indeed a high minded woman and a great
53:47
champion of the underprivileged. End Quote.
53:50
Grace Abbott left the Children's Bureau in June 1934 to assume a
53:54
professorship in public welfare at the School of Social Service
53:58
Administration, University of Chicago, where her sister Edith
54:02
was the Dean. The immensity of her activities
54:05
and influence during her years in Washington cannot be covered
54:08
fully in these pages. For example, no mention has been
54:12
made of her intentional work with the League of Nations,
54:15
which she undertook at the request of the State Department.
54:18
This was pioneer work in international social welfare
54:21
which helped to lay a foundation for later worldwide cooperative
54:25
research, consultation and education.
54:28
Nor has discussion been given to the numerous honors which were
54:32
accorded her. Some of these follow.
54:35
In 1931, she was given the Gold Medal Award of the National
54:39
Institute of Social Sciences and termed quote, by far the most
54:43
important social worker in public life today and quote, In
54:47
that same year, she was chosen as one of America's 12 Greatest
54:50
Women by the nationwide Popular Magazine Poll.
54:54
She was elected President of the National Conference of Social
54:57
Work in 1923, only the fifth woman in 50 years to hold that
55:01
office. In 1932, she was given a
55:03
Distinguished Service Plaque by the Nebraska Conference of
55:06
Social Work. She received widespread popular
55:09
support for appointment as Secretary of Labor when that
55:12
post was vacant during President Hoover's administration.
55:16
She received 6 honorary degrees, including one from the
55:19
University of Nebraska. Memorial fellowships were set in
55:23
her name. Children's homes in South Dakota
55:26
and a children's treatment center in Illinois were named
55:29
for her. A Liberty ship was christened
55:32
the Grace Abbott. Her two volume, The Child and
55:36
the State became a classic still used by students and researchers
55:39
interested in socio legal aspects of family and child
55:43
welfare. During the years 1921 through
55:47
1939, Grace Abbott made frequent trips to Nebraska to visit her
55:51
family in Grand Island and to attend to Children's Bureau's
55:54
business and other public welfare matters.
55:57
She endured 2 extended periods of bed rest in Colorado, the
56:01
common treatment for tuberculosis.
56:03
When her tuberculosis was diagnosed, her physician
56:06
suggested a treatment location in New York State, but she asked
56:10
to go to Colorado instead. Quote, it's closer to Nebraska
56:14
and that's important to me. End Quote.
56:16
During her exile, as Edith Abbott had called it, Grace
56:20
remained in close communication by letter, Telegraph and staff
56:24
visits with Washington and the Children's Bureau.
56:27
Grace Abbott died June 19th, 1939 of multiple myeloma.
56:31
Her strong heart and her courageous approach to illness
56:34
kept her working for the causes she believed in almost to the
56:38
end of her life. A few months after her death,
56:41
Edith Abbott wrote quote. Grace and I often talked over
56:45
the vivid memories which we shared of the pioneer days and
56:48
are part of the Great Plains. And we used to say that if we
56:51
lived in Chicago 100 years, we could never forget the call of
56:55
the meadowlarks along the roadside, the rustling wind in
56:59
the corn, the slow flight of the sandhill cranes over the Prairie
57:03
Creek near our home, and the old Overland Trail a mile from the
57:07
Main Street of our town, where the wild plums were hidden and
57:10
the bittersweet berries hung from the cottonwoods in the
57:13
early fall. Thank you for listening to the
57:16
Nebraska History Podcast. To learn more about Nebraska
57:18
History Magazine, to listen to more podcast episodes, or to
57:21
support our podcast by becoming a member of the Nebraska State
57:24
Historical Society, go to history.nebraska.gov/podcast.
57:29
And don't forget to subscribe to the podcast and get notified
57:32
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57:36
Until next time, I'm Chris Goforth.