History of Community Services League Part 2
Originally written by Dorace Wilson, with edits and updates by Caitlin Eckard.Expanding Community Welfare League
With Mrs. Bryan's leadership, committees representing the Community Welfare League throughout Jackson County outside Kansas City were organized in Brooking (Raytown), Washington (Grandview), Prairie (Lee's Summit), Van Buren (Lone Jack), Sni-A-Bar (Blue Springs, Grain Valley, Oak Grove), and Ft. Osage (Buckner). Consisting of three to perhaps fifteen residents in the respective areas, the value of these organizations was realized during fund drives as well as serving as contact points when assistance calls came to the Community Welfare League office.
The agency also found value in providing information or networking with other agencies involved in assistance or support work. One undated report found with papers from the 20s lists the following service for other organizations:
Provident Association of Kansas City 2
Travelers Aid, New York 1
Travelers Aid, Kansas City 1
Children's Bureau, St. Paul, Minn. 1
Juvenile Protective Association, Los Angeles, Calif 1
Family Welfare, Tacoma, Wash. 1
Cases referred to other organizations were listed as
Probation Office 3
Girls Advisory, Kansas City 1
Helping Hand 1
L.D.S. Social Service 2
T. B. Society 2
Contacts with other organizations:
Supreme Court, U.S.A.
Adjutant General~ U.S.A.
Wichita League for Social Work, Wichita, Kans.
Associated Charities & Philanthropies, Peoria, III.
Ladies Industrial Relief Society, Davenport, Ia.
Methodist Home for Aged, Marionville, Mo.
Baptist Home for Aged, Ironton, Ia.
Social Welfare, Sedalia, Mo.
Community Welfare League and the Great Depression
A state charter for the League was secured in February 1923, and until the depression got in full swing, the League was able to take care of the known needs in good fashion, in the estimation of Neal O. "Tommy" Thomason when he assessed the situation before the Independence Optimist Club in April 1923. With the depression, however, came state and federal relief which required local sponsorship furnished by the Community Welfare League, combining with the Civic Relief Commission, a similar organization sponsored by the City of Independence and giving help to residents of Independence with Mayor Roger T. Sermon serving as president. The lack of work, foreclosure on home mortgages, drought, dust storms that were hitting other parts of the nation were also coming to Jackson County, bringing hunger with no work in sight.
Relief in Jackson County was administered under the direction of a county committee of seven members. Separated into two main divisions by the State of Missouri Department of Welfare, the Kansas City division handled all relief problems within the city limits under the auspices of the Kansas City Provident Association. The balance of the county was divided into two sub-districts, the city limits of Independence served by Civic Relief Commission and rural areas handled through the offices of the Community Welfare League.
On July 1, 1934, the two units of the Eastern Jackson County division were merged into one administrative office and one casework department under the direction of Dr. L. W. Harper, with administrative office including accounting located in the Log Cabin, headquarters of the Community Welfare League.
The caseload of the Eastern Division of the Jackson County Emergency Relief Committee, as it was known, consisted of 2,500 families, 1200 hundred families benefiting from work relief projects. Thirteen hundred families were carried on direct relief rolls.
The largest single work relief project operating in the county was the beef cannery which employed 627 persons (519 men and 108 women). It was located in the War Memorial Building, later renamed the Truman Memorial Building, West Maple and Pleasant. Space there was donated by the City of Independence. The cannery reported an output of approximately 15,000 cans per day, stew meat, roast cuts and soup stock. The cannery, laundry and a mattress factory employing approximately 90 persons per week with an output of 30 mattresses per day, were state projects, over and above the regular county work relief quota.
Numerous projects were set up in cooperation with local backing or sponsorship of Community Welfare League and Civic Relief Commission furnishing building, equipment, etc. Examples of this in the regular allotment of work relief for the Eastern Division of the Jackson County Emergency Relief Committee were 6 sewing rooms operating over the county, employing 110 women per week. The rooms were located in rent-free locations with all items of fuel, light, and water donated or paid for by local communities. Their products included dresses, shirts, under clothing of all kinds, coveralls, play suits, pillow cases, sheets, comforts, quilts, and rugs. Over half of the 110 women employed worked out of the sewing room located in the first county jail built in Independence. This building was given to the local relief office in approximately 1933 and was cleaned up and repaired by C.W.A. labor.
The jail building was also the site of the laundry, a state program employing fifteen women per week who took care of uniforms, towels and all linens used in the beef cannery. A kitchen project employing seven persons per week plus a vegetable cannery which employed twenty persons per week was at the jail site also. The kitchen provided free meals for the workers on the community garden project and served meals at ten cents per meal to any workers on work relief projects who could find transportation, or walk, to the dining room built in connection with the kitchen.
Jail building being used as a kitchen.
A nursery to care for young children whose mothers were employed on work relief projects, employing four helpers and one supervisor, was started by the Civic Relief Commission in 1933, using donated space in the War Memorial Building. The first week's enrollment was eight, but soon grew to 80 and had to be moved from its original quarters to a house rented for the project. The staff grew also to include a nurse, a trained nursery school teacher, and three helpers.
In addition to all the projects listed above, plus many not listed, eastern Jackson County boasted one program which had to be one of the most unique. A "cow hotel" was established on a farm in order to care for the cattle saved as milk cows from the drought relief cattle. While awaiting the selection of boarding homes, these cows were milked at the farm and the milk was sent to the relief kitchen where it was bottled in quart jars and sent to the commissary for distribution to relief clients. Some of the milk was also sent to the nursery, some used in preparing lunches for the garden workers.
In the minutes of February 27, 1936, the Board of Directors realized the situation of extreme need in Eastern Jackson County, and also understood the danger of becoming completely eliminated as the State and Federal agencies controlled funds and answered needs. At that meeting a motion was made to give the President and Executive Secretary the power to maintain a skeleton organization to disburse what funds "we have and in order that the League may retain its identity and have personnel to resume the work as soon as more funds are realized in the future." The·motion was carried.
League records describe annual drives which started soon after agency organization. Beginning with a plea to community residents for an annual membership fee of $1.00, the request changed as needs increased to holding an Annual Charity Drive in the fall at the same time as the Kansas City drive. It was funds from these annual drives that provided assistance money for CWL to use in addition to the State and Federal Funds used for small payments for staff and administration costs.
In January 1936, 322 new relief cases were registered in the office, an all time peak figure for any one month since the League was organized 18 years previously.
About this time, the Board resisted an order from the State that all case records of the League, numbering more than 3,000 and dating back years before the State entered the field of relief, be shipped to Jefferson City. Board members felt this action would leave the League and Civic Relief helpless to conduct relief even on local funds in the future. As part of the economy move, Mrs. Wyatt, caseworker, offered to give her services free. The switchboard was eliminated and two trunk lines were to be installed at a savings of about $40 per month.
The March 1936 minutes contained a description of the relief situation from Dr. Harper, working with the county office and also serving as executive director of the League. He outlined how the annual drive and assistance of the County Court had previously carried the relief load of the County. The peak month under government direction amounted to $137,000 but has now been reduced to $4,000 and the staff will be cut from 47 to 6. This skeleton staff will cost $500 per month and will be paid by the Civic Relief and the Welfare League, money coming in on pledges. The commodity allowance including food stuffs and sewing products will be distributed in increased amounts next month.
September 1936 minutes reflect two other very important actions: (1) Neal O. Thomason was hired by the Board as an accountant, and (2) Mrs. Bess Truman requested to be released from her position as second vice president due to her frequent absence from the city. Minutes of the October meeting note that Mrs. Truman was made honorary vice president, the first such honor given.
In May and June 1937, the Board dealt with the issue of the ownership of the Log Courthouse. After conversations with Mayor Roger Sermon, it was reported that the City could not give title to a lot which belonged to the City, but the League was welcome to use the building as long as it wished. Value on the building was set at $2,500.
The fall charity drive in 1937 reported a total of $9,401.71 collected in the County.
In 1938, minutes of a special meeting held in August reported a new order by which the local field and office staff had been cut almost in half. Of a working staff of twenty-four, eleven people were laid off by the order from the State Welfare office. The Board, however, felt that two of those to be terminated, Mr. Thomason., accountant, and Mrs. Lillie Cummins, a community visitor, were too important to the work of the League office to let go. With the help of Civic Relief Commission which agreed to pay half of Thomason's salary, he was kept on at one-half of his salary, $1800 per year, and Mrs. Cummins agreed to continue working for $720 per year plus a $15 per month car allowance.
The next year, 1939, Dr. Harper resigned as Executive Secretary of the county welfare office and was replaced by William Huttig who offered to take over the CWL office at no extra cost to the League. This action was approved immediately by the Board.
During this time, rumors were circulating that the Welfare League had ceased to exist by reason of having been absorbed by the State. Mrs. Alvin Hawes, a former board member, brought this question to the Board and was quickly assured by Charles Tucker, League president, that the rumors were groundless and there had been no change in the policies or methods of the Welfare League. He further stated that if all the assets shown on the monthly statement were applied by the Board to the problem of relief independent of the state, they would last a very short time.
Minutes of the December 1939 meeting reported $6,873.93 in pledges, $3,500 received in actual cash. During this period, auxiliary boards throughout eastern Jackson County continued to support Community Welfare League work in their respective communities.
Discussion and reports concerning state surplus food products distribution and storage, W.P.A. plans and allocations, needs of the sponsored nursery school, promoting the charity drives and collecting pledges filled the meeting agendas for the balance of the year and into the 40s. A request noted in October 1940 to the Welfare Board to allow use of its records as they might pertain to Selective Service Classification was the only indication of the change in world conditions and how it might affect Jackson County residents. The action was approved.
Community Welfare Relief Gardens
A called meeting in the same month where distribution of surplus commodities to persons on relief was endorsed by the executive boards of Civic Relief Commission and the Community Welfare League opened a program of huge assistance to the area. Mayor Roger Sermon, who hosted the meeting, heartily outlined the benefits and advantages to the entire county. In promoting the plan to those in attendance; he estimated it would mean an increase of about two million dollars annually in the food business, and put the business back in regular channels of trade, doing away with surplus commodity warehouses operated by the government. It would include and benefit those on general relief, Old Age Assistance, Aid to Dependent Children, and W.P.A.
In order to implement the food stamp program, the Board voted to employ a stamp cashier at the November 28, 1940, meeting who would be bonded. Other safeguards included obtaining a $10,000 comprehensive insurance policy on the safe where the stamps were to be kept. The cashier would be paid $100 per month, would furnish his own automobile, but $25 per month was to be allowed for oil, gas and repairs.
In a report written later by Thomason, he described the program:
Sponsorship of the Surplus Marketing Administration Food Stamp Plan for Eastern Jackson County, one of the last and better cooperative projects, resulted in an extra allowance amounting to more than fifty thousand dollars worth of food during the first eight months of operation to eligible assistance cases. This service not only increased the buying power of relief funds bilt resulted in a proportionate increase in the retail food sales throughout Eastern Jackson County.
It was necessary that the Community Welfare League and Civic Relief Commission each advance $5,000 for the original purchase of stamps. These then were sold to clients, amounts based on family size. For each ten dollars worth of orange stamps purchased, five dollars worth of blue stamps were given free, thus the client was able to purchase fifteen dollars worth of food. For the approximate six months period, December 18, 1940, to June 30, 1942, such purchases totaled $141,000 and clients received $211,500 in food. The local agencies not only provided the necessary revolving fund, but built and furnished an office and provided a manager.
The food stamp plan underwritten by the Welfare League and Civic Relief Commission was suspended by the federal government on March 1, 1943, and the $6,000 revolving Fund was eventually returned, $3,000 to each agency.
In additional business closing out 1940, it was reported that the state would be out of relief funds by December 31, and the Board voted that in case of dire need, Mr. Huttig would be allowed $500 for direct relief for eastern Jackson County. It was also decided to allow $50 to hire a truck to distribute surplus commodities in the rural districts during the period of emergency. Thankfully, the state and federal funds were soon available and an all time high relief amount of $48,25 1.56 was spent in April 1941.
WWII and CWL
During board discussion, it was noted that new defense employment in the area would no doubt cut the volume of requests. To that date in Jackson County, including Kansas City, 1400 relief cases had been closed. In October, pledges in the upcoming drive were given as $8,829.44 or $300 over the previous year, with Lake City Remington Arms pledges shown as $499.20.
Lake City employees
Again, the outside world entered the area of Community Welfare League concern when in 1942, the Local Selective Service Board #2 requested the expense of dental corrections for men from the League's territory be paid by the League. Since the men were rejected for service by army doctors, the League Board approved payment of the expense to rehabilitate rejected registrants needing dental corrections on a trial proposition for 30 days with the view of handling 4 such cases, average cost $12.50 each. Registrants for this assistance must be residents of Jackson County outside the city limits of Independence, the Board decided. A bill of $25 was received; however, an article by Board Member E. K. Carnes in the Independence EXAMINER, brought the matter to the attention of the government who agreed to take care of the expenses of rehabilitation.
A plan to consolidate all of the various drives--Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Camp Fire Girls, USO, Army and Navy Relief and various foreign relief societies plus the regular Community Chest- into a combined War Chest Drive such as that planned by Kansas City was discussed and approved under the leadership of Stanley Fike, committee chairman. The final plan was approved at the September 24, 1942, meeting with Paul C. Ford elected as the General Chairman of the Campaign. Lake City Remington plant was visited and was found to be very cooperative. Mayor Sermon, however, announced that the city would not participate in the plan.
The November minutes showed a total of $25,681.73 recorded as pledged for the combined War Chest drive, and it was thought that when reports were received from all sources, the total would go to $27,500. Since a great number of residents of Independence did contribute to the drive, Paul Ford proposed that $4,300 be credited to the Civic Relief Commission regardless of Mayor Sermon's refusal to participate in the drive. The Commission would allocate this fund to the same agencies and in the same quota percentages as set up in the War Chest Fund.
At this point in the minutes President Tucker turned the meeting over to Stanley Fike, chairman of the special War Chest Committee. Some might say this was the beginning of the Jackson County United Way which later officially shared space with the Community Welfare League and was an outgrowth of the Jackson County War Chest. Fike was elected president of the War Chest.
It was at a later meeting in November that Thomason reported that the W.P.A. Nursery was to be changed to a fee nursery. Under the war setup, it was found advisable by the W.P.A. to allow children of war plant families to enter the school but for a fee to be based on income. Children of families unable to pay would be allowed to remain. To take care of needed repairs and install a fire escape, the Board voted $125. The owner of the property had agreed to replace or rebuild the furnace.
Just three months after this meeting, Mr. Thomason advised the Board that the School Nursery, 202 E. Kansas, was to close March 6th because of the close out of all W.P.A. projects. At the March 25th meeting two representatives from the Stone Church met with the Board presented a plan for reopening the nursery by combining the church nursery, being operated on West Lexington Street, with the nursery at 202 E. Kansas and opening it to all children of parents showing the need for such care on a fee basis. The project would be non-sectarian and operate on a twenty-four hour basis. Rates would be $1 for twelve hours and $1.50 for twenty-four hours. Mayor Sermon and the Civic Relief Commission agreed to contribute $50 per month and Community Welfare was asked to contribute a like amount.
The League agreed to the proposal and the school opened in April with an attendance of twenty at the end of the first month. These children were from war workers’ families, many remained for the twenty-four hour period. A report in September 1943 noted that the "Stone Church Nursery Home" was going forward with a staff of three to five on duty. Hopes that the Home would become self-sustaining were premature due to fuel needs, janitor service and possible loss of Surplus Food reimbursements. A $25 contribution for the month of October was requested from both the League and the Civic Relief Commission.
In July 1943 the Board made the decision to not ask for funds from the '43-'44 War Chest campaign to be held in October. It was noted by President Tucker that this would be the first year that a campaign for funds had not been made since the organization of the League. The plan, endorsed by five out of nine Board Members, was approved because of a small reserve built up and the fact that relief demands were very low. The League continued to assist in the War Chest drive and all funds collected were to be used for various war relief agencies and such local organizations participating in the drive. The League continued to function with usual services, maintaining its headquarters in the Log Cabin.
After March 1942, minutes of the Community Welfare League stopped listing requests or reports from auxiliary community boards. One exception was October 27, 1944, when there was one report from Lee's Summit. No comment was made about this lack of attendance and participation, and it can only be surmised that requests were dwindling, which the statistics show, and that all representatives were involved in the war effort, putting in extra hours at work and perhaps lacking gasoline to drive to Independence to attend the monthly meetings. It is noted, however, that a Raytown representative, A. E. "Cap" Garvin, was elected to the Board which might indicate a change in policy in placing auxiliary board representation on the Board in order for them to have an official vote.
Fundraising in Wartime
December 28, 1944, minutes report a comment by President Tucker as he called the Board's attention to the general bank account which was gradually being depleted. He thought his condition was brought about by the lack of allocation from the War Chest drive and hoped that the League would be included in the next year's campaign.
In the same month's minutes, Margaret Horton, caseworker supervisor, reported on the success of the community's response to the Christmas adoption of 82 families cleared through the local Social Security office. Cash donations of $132 were disbursed where they would do the most good. The Salvation Army gave supplemental aid to 60 families in the county, twenty being from Independence. The Christmas adoption has continued as part of the League's activities through the present time.
In May 1945, President Tucker again called attention to the dwindling cash reserve and suggested studying the matter to be able to place a request with the War Chest budget committee when appropriate. It was immediately decided to request $4,000 from the War Chest to cover anticipated relief and administrative expenditures for the year ending September 30, 1946.
It was believed that the closing of war plants and loss of military allotments had caused a considerable increase in all categories of relief. The 1945-46 War Chest reported pledges of $46,000, $37,000 of which was in cash. This was a great deal less than had been expected.
The amount of business and requests for help from CWL Board continued to remain small as reflected by the request of $4,000 from Community Chest since the State Welfare office was doing most of the work and spending state and federal funds as possible. The State Welfare office personnel, however, continued to advise the CWL Board of expected case load increases. Under state regulation, the Social Security office had to refuse assistance to families with an employable person in them.
The State, also refusing to increase adequate appropriations, was paying claims from A.D.C. clients at a rate of only 72% of the authorized amount, causing medical expense to increase considerably. This, along with increased requests for other assistance, was straining the Welfare office budget. Noting these conditions, the Board voted to be more liberal policy in extending supplementary air to families in the A.D.C. Classification. The relief expenditures for 1946 were expected to exceed $4,000,000.
The financial picture on the local scene was not as gloomy as one might have been lead to believe since the League Board had purchased U. S. Savings bonds at the cost of $14,774.25, maturity value $19,875. In July 1947, an accounting of the contents of the safe deposit box held at the Bank of Independence, listed these as well as ten shares of W. R. Smith Lumber & Shingle Co. stock. The Board continued to receive requests from that company to purchase back the· stock, but the Board felt collecting the dividends was more profitable. In September 1946 an offer was made to purchase the shares at $55 per share, but from then until January 1947, two dividend checks of $90 each were received. This was enough for the Board to hold on to the stock.
The Rural Jackson County Community Chest and the Community Chest of Kansas City was consolidated in 1948, Paul Ford told the Board in May 1948. The new organization would be known simply as the Community Chest.
Also of concern was the annexation of the new territory by Independence, but it was decided to continue the Community Welfare coverage of clients in the annexed district for the year 1948-49.
It was reported by the representative from the County Welfare that prospects were for considerable need in the general relief classification during the coming year, but the maximum grants were being raised in Old Age and Aid to Dependent Children classifications.
Minutes of January 1949, reported a number of requests received by employable families asking for assistance due perhaps to a trend in business of general leveling off. It was agreed that employable families would be asked to sign notes for help extended and the information of this action be forwarded to the Community Chest informing it of this trend and suggesting that the report be given such publicity as necessary in order that the proper authorities might be in a position to plan for this condition before it becomes acute.
The question of having employable clients sign notes for food and fuel orders was discussed again during the January 26, 1950, meeting. It was agreed to allow Mr. Thomason to use his discretion as to carrying out this action.
Medical expense and cost of prescription drugs continued to increase and caused that a plan be worked out with the hospital to furnish prescriptions to CWL clients on a great concern among Board members in the late months of 1950. A committee appeared before the County Court, asking that prescriptions be filled at the county hospital at the hospital's expense. The Court promised to look into the matter.
Independence Sanitarium
The need colored a good many of the discussions in the following months. When a request from the current campaign for funds by the Independence Sanitarium and Hospital was considered, it was suggested that such a donation with the understanding cost plus small percentage would be a good idea. All Board Members were brought into the discussion and when a motion to take this action was made at the October 8, 1951 meeting, it was tabled until November in order that all members have an opportunity to express their opinions. The motion when acted upon was agreed to, but it was not explained whether there would be assistance from the Sanitarium on the matter of prescription costs.